Marauders
by I Swear I'm Not A Werewolf
Summary: Many people want a book series, 'The Marauders and the-' well here it is. follow James Potter, Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew, and Remus Lupin though platform 9 3/4, the Hogwarts Express, the sorting, and during their first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. This is in progress I'm uploading it chapter by chapter so follow the story if you want to stay connected.
1. Fleamont's Son

James, for one of the first times in his life, was found cleaning his room. Or less of cleaning, more like pushing the piles of cloths, papers, and food wrappers across the floor to create an empty space in the middle of the room. He stood back to look at the area he'd just made. Deciding that it was good enough, he climbed onto his unmade bed, faced the wall, and got ready to do something undoubtedly stupid.

With his hands above his head, and his knees bent, he pushed off hard, to make the most spectacular back flip done by an eleven-year-old boy on top of their unmade bed. But considering the fact that he had never attempted a back flip so he didn't know the proper form, and taking into account that his dresser, which was almost empty because he never put his cloths away, was less than five feet from his bed, meant his feet made contact with the dresser causing his hands to slip and face to smash against the wood floor.

The boy rolled over holding his face in pain. He rushed to his feet so that he could look into the mirror to see whether or not his nose was broken. Upon arrival at the mirror, he found that he could not even see his nose because his square glasses had smashed.

He rushed down the spiral staircase holding his face, and almost falling down due to his blindness. He looked at his hands which were covered in blood.

"Ma!" he called as he made his way into the foyer.

"I'm in the kitchen!" she called back. "And the post has just arrived, you've got your letter I think!"

His letter. That is what every wizard kid in the world waits their whole life for! His mind was completely brought away from his bloody nose and smashed glasses and was focused on nothing else except for the letter. He ran to the letter box and picked up a small pile of blurry white things that he could only guess was the mail. Quickly he flipped through the stack once, twice, three times but couldn't tell any of them apart from one another.

Instead he made for the lounge because that is where his father normally was.

"Dad?" he called as he made into the room.

"Dear lord, what have you done to your face?" said his father in surprise.

"Oh, I fell." James replied. "Can you fix my glasses?"

"Oh of course, give them here." he took the glasses James had handed him. " _Oculus Reparo_." said his father, waving his wand above them, and immediately new glass appeared inside the frames. James put them back on his face.

"Mom said she thinks I got my letter."

"What letter?" asked his dad.

"My letter from Hogwarts?" he exclaimed.

"Then go ahead and open it."

James flipped through the pile of mail, that was clear now, until he found it. His heart stopped as he looked at the yellowish envelope with emerald green writing. He read the name across the back.

"Mr. J. Potter"

He turned the envelope over to see the Hogwarts crest, a lion, a snake, a badger, and an eagle all on a quarter of the Hogwarts coat of arms. He tore the letter open with exhilaration and pulled from it, two pieces of parchment. The first read,

"Dear Mr. Potter, we are pleased to inform you that you have been excepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Please find enclosed list of all necessary books and equipment.

Term begins on 1st September. We await your owl no later than 31st July.

Yours Sincerely,

Minerva Mcgonagall,

Deputy Headmistress."

James looked up at his father in excitement, now with the taste of blood in his mouth.

"You best go show your mother." said his dad. "Also, you may want to get cleaned up a bit."

James bounded down the hall. This was his ticket! His ticket to school! His ticket to a new life! He was pretty much handed a letter that said, 'FREEDOM!'. James made his way into the kitchen to find his mother reaching into the spice cabinet. His mother was an elderly witch, not being blessed with a child until later in her life. She had short gray hair and a round, friendly face. James slipped his arms under hers and waved the letter in front of her face.

"Oh James, how wonderful!" she took the letter and pulled from it the parchment and read it still turned toward the cabinet. "We could go to Diagon Ally tomorrow." she said placing the paper back into the envelope.

"Why can't we go today?" asked James.

"Because your father- Aaaahhh!" she shrieked finally turning around. "What on earth have you done to your face!"

"I fell off my bed. Mom, it's not that bad."

"Won't you look in the mirror!" she exclaimed pointing to one above the sinks. James looked at his reflection and was startled to see that his entire face was covered with blood along with a swollen lip, he looked down to see that the front of his clothes were streaked with blood and when he went to respond, he found that his teeth had blood on them too. Pain began to arise in his face now that he was no longer thinking about the letter.

"Oh come here dear." said his mom taking him by the shoulders and turning him gently around. " _Scorgify_!" she said waving her wand and in an instant all the blood from his face, shirt, and mouth disappeared. Now he was just left with a bloody nose and swollen lip.

"Let me see," said is mom tapping his nose with her finger uncomfortably. "Well it's not broken, oh, I don't know the spell for bloody noses. But here," and she kissed him on the nose. "How did you fall of your bed? I heard a terrible thump."

"I was trying to do a back flip but forgot to tuck my legs in so I just fell." he replied.

"Oh James. You should to get a tissue." she kissed him on the head and he walked out of the room.

His mother headed toward the lounge. James rushed up the stairs behind her.

"Oh Fleamont." she said taking a seat next to her husband.

"Have you seem James?" he asked causally while reading the newspaper.

"Yes," she replied. "I had to clean him up. Oh I'm worried, he's so reckless and doesn't think before he acts he just, does it. I'm worried about him going to Hogwarts, we won't be able to watch over him and I won't be able to kiss him when he's hurt."

They heard a loud scrapping noise from upstairs as if something very large was being pushed across the floor.

"He'll be fine Euphemia." he replied.

There was a small silence.

"He gets it from you." she said finally.

"What?" Fleamont said putting down the paper and laughing.

"I'm serious, he certainly doesn't get it from my side of the family. We were always careful and cautious. It was you who was the _wild_ boy, never reasoning with the danger and foolishness of it."

"Well," Fleamont started, taking his glasses off. "I was under the impression that my recklessness was the reason you fell for me."

"What?" said Euphemia. "Don't be absurd."

"Absurd am I? I do think I recall a certain girl, on a certain first week of term mentioning that she had never met anyone like me, and that I seem not to worry about anything and am just swept away with whatever wind wants me."

"I never-" she started.

"Or maybe it was a certain girl in a certain hallway taking to a certain Marita Hutbert, ' _Oh Marita_ ,'" he started in a higher girl voice. " _there's a cute boy with a funny name that I really like, he's just so brave and free, I don't even know if he knows that I exist. He does whatever he wants without fear of consequences. I just want to be more like that_."

"I never- Oh. . ." said his wife remembering. "Wait, you stalked me?" she asked.

"Of course I stalked you, I was in love, and for the record I did know you existed. Who knows, maybe James will find a calm and cautious girl too."

WAM!

Came a horrible noise from above them. Then came the sound of rushing footsteps. James ran into the lounge.

"Hey dad can you fix these?" he asked holding out his glasses again, this time with a swollen eye.

"He better find that kind of girl." said Euphemia


	2. Diagon Alley

"Okay," said his mom moments later standing in James' bedroom with her fingers rubbing her eyebrows. "please explain this to me. . ."

"Well," started James, a steak pressed to his eye. "I figured that if I moved my bed then I wouldn't hit the dresser."

"But?" said his mom.

"But I did a front flip this time and forgot about the doorknob."

"Sweetheart?" she said with her head in her hands. "Wouldn't it have made much more sense to just move the dresser?"

There was a short pause.

"Hmm." James said, thinking.

"James you need to think before you leap. You are reckless and a danger to yourself."

James moved the steak and looked at her through his swollen eye. His mom bent to his height and put her hands on his shoulders.

"You are so smart. . . academically. But you lack, and I mean this in the most loving way, common sense."

"Mom it was only a flip." said James.

"Honey, I am standing in your blood right now. I am just afraid of you going to Hogwarts and doing something stupid and hurting yourself, I won't be there to comfort you or hold you."

"I'll use common sense at school, it's only home that I'm a bit more, reckless. I promise mom, I'll be good at school. I always behave myself in public, when have I ever done otherwise?"

"James, you tried to use the clothes line as a high wire, you jumped off of our bridge with an umbrella so you could fly, you climbed onto Penny Latimear's roof for a dare!"

"Well it was dad who dared me." he mumbled.

"It was what!" she screeched, then she stormed out of the room and James knew she was heading to the lounge.

He sat at the end of his bed and slapped the steak back to his eye. He looked at the, now dry, blood stain on the floor. He spit on it then with his foot drug a sock from his floor over the spot and absentmindedly attempted to wipe it up. It just smeared, so he laid back on his bed and watched the Quidditch players on the poster above his bed, fly around the picture.

Quidditch was a wizard sport played on broomsticks. And the most wonderful thing on earth. There were four balls, seven players on a team, and three goal post on either side of the pitch. In the seven players, there were three chasers, two beaters, one keeper, and one seeker. The chasers would take the largest ball, the quaffle and try to get it through one of the other team's goal hoops, the beaters would use clubs to hit the two bludgers away from their own team and at the opposing teams players, bludgers were heavy balls whose job it was to hit as many players as they could of their broom, the keeper would guard their goal post and prevent the other team from scoring, and it was the seekers job to catch the last ball called the snitch. The snitch was a tiny golden ball that would zigzag around the pitch and was exceptionally tricky to catch. Once the snitch it caught, the game is over. Ten points to every goal scored and one-hundred-fifty points to the team that catches the snitch. Whichever team has the most points at the end of the games wins.

Hogwarts has its own Quidditch team and James had already decided he'd join in second year. He knew he could, everyone in the neighborhood knew that he was an excellent flier. The kids in the neighborhood didn't want to play on the opposite team against him during recreational Quidditch because his team always won. He was always the captain in any bodies backyard.

He smiled to himself, which hurt because of his swollen lip.

"James?" came a soft voice the next morning. His mother sat on the end of his bed and stroked his hair. "James darling wake up; your father is going to take you to Diagon Alley today."

"Why aren't you coming?" asked James still half asleep with his eyes closed.

"I have to meet up with Harley this morning, but I might stop by depending on the time of my departure."

"No ma," he mumbled patting her arm. "don't use big words, it's too early."

His mom smiled. "Alright, well you guys need to leave in fifteen minutes, I made you breakfast."

"So," James said still with his eyes closed waving his arm around. "Five minutes sleeping, five minutes eating, five getting ready."

"If you want." she replied. "I'll come get you in five minutes."

James closed his eyes again and fell back to sleep. Five minutes later he was woken up by his mom, ate his breakfast, left for Diagon Ally, bought all of his school stuff, and was now on the Hogwarts Express heading toward school.

"James, James wake up." his mother was standing over him again. "Its been five minutes you need to get up now."

James looked around confused. "But I already. . ." he stood up, he was not wearing his Hogwarts robes, but his spaceship pajamas. The dream had felt so real. . . but oh well, now he got to do it all over again.

He ran to the kitchen and was greeted by the warm smell of sausage gravy biscuits, he ate his surprisingly fast. James then rushed back upstairs changed into something that he wouldn't be embarrassed to go out in public in, and ran back downstairs and met with his dad, who rubbed his head, and they made for the door.

"James!" called his mother. "You didn't brush your teeth or comb your hair."

James groaned then ran back inside, brushed his teeth, and dry combed his hair, which did nothing, his hair had always been simply unmanageable. Jet black and everywhere, he got this trait from his mom, that's why she normally wore it up.

He met back up with his dad, and they made their way back out the door.

"How are we getting there?" he asked as they walked to the main gate guarding their driveway.

"We're walking." Fleamont replied.

"Why don't we just take our brooms?" asked James.

"If we bring our brooms we'd have to carry them around with us all day which would be a hassle." his dad replied.

"Not really." James started. "We could just ride them, then you could shrink them to fit in our pockets, or we could arrive on them and you would just apparate them home then apparate back, or you could transfigure them into something smaller, or you could-"

"Okay, okay," Fleamont had to stop him. "My nurse at St. Mungo's said I need to get walking more, for my health."

"You're sick?"

"No bud I'm fine, it's just exercise, I've been apparating to much."

The Potters lived very close to Diagon Alley, less than five minutes.

"What house do you want to be sorted into?" his dad asked as they turned down the street.

"I already know which one I'm going in, Gryffindor." James replied.

"But do you _want_ to be in Gryffindor?" Fleamont asked.

James looked at him a bit confused.

"What'd you mean?" he asked.

"Well I mean I don't want you to feel like you _have_ to be in Gryffindor or anything, I want you to be able to go wherever you want." he replied.

"I _want_ to be in Gryffindor." said James. "Courageous and free! Like you."

Fleamont smiled. "As long as that was what you wanted." And a look of relief came across his face.

The sun was shining brightly and the weather was warm and comfortable. They began their decent down a grassy hill. James could see Gringotts Wizard bank in the distance.

Finally, they were walking toward the road into Diagon Alley. Fleamont put his hand on his son's shoulder as they passed three wizards coming out of a road called Knockturn Alley.

"Dad? Can we go into Quality Quidditch Supply first?" James asked as they emerged into the Ally.

"What's at Quality Quidditch that you need?" dad asked.

"Nothing I just want to see what's new!" James replied excitedly.

"We need to go to the bank first, then we're getting everything on that list of yours, then if we have time, we can go."

"Dad! The list! I forgot it!" James exclaimed.

His dad sighed. "Where'd you leave it?"

"On the floor, in my room I think. Or it could be on the kitchen table, or in the bathroom. You know what? I think I had it with me when I was outside."

"Alright, you wait here," he placed James on a bench outside the Magical Menagerie. "and I'll get it."

And with a loud 'CRACK' he disappeared. James tapped his hands on his knees for a moment and looked around. The bench was really uncomfortable. He shifted to he left, then he sat side sideways, then he tried laying down. . . no, laying down was too weird in public. He took to tapping his legs and clicking his tongue again. 'CRACK' James bit his tongue.

"Here you go, son." said his dad handing him the Hogwarts list.

"Mmmhhhm." James muttered, holding his bleeding tongue between his teeth.

They made their way to the Gringotts Bank. It was a large, white building and at the front doors were two goblins; they were short and squat, they had long toes and fingers, beetle black eyes, and looked in pain when they smiled. The goblins bowed them through the front door and a second pair of goblins bowed them through the second set of doors which led into a giant marble room with over a hundred goblins working with gold behind their counters. James and his dad who was, again, holding onto his son's shoulder, passed the goblins and their work and made their way strait up to the front counter. Behind the desk was a young goblin taking notes. He put down his quill and looked over the table at them.

"I would like to enter my vault." said Fleamont.

"Of course Mr?"

"Potter." he replied, and he placed a small golden key on the counter in front of the goblin.

"And is this young lad accompanying you?" asked the goblin in a gruff voice.

"Yes he will." Fleamont replied.

"Very well, Malwick will take you to your vault." said the goblin gesturing toward a particularly tall goblin in the corner.

Malwick nodded and opened a stone door to allow them entry.

They walked through, and found themselves in what looked like an enormous cave with mining tunnels leading in various directions.

"After you sirs." said Malwick pointing to a cart. James jumped in first, then his dad, then Malwick took the seat in front of James. Malwick looked behind him to make sure they were both secure, then WHOOSH! The cart took off so fast that James' head hit his dad's behind him.

Around and around it went, completely untraceable. Twice they went upside down so fast that that, though they were not buckled, they stayed sitting in the cart. Until finally FOOOSH. The cart came to a halt.

"Malwick?" said James as he climbed out of the cart. "Has anybody ever died during one of those rides?"

"Yes." Malwick replied shortly. He inserted the key into the lock.

"How?" asked James.

"James." said his father scornfully.

"A certain wizard thought it would be funny to stand up in the cart. . . he was sucked out. . . the body was never found."

There was a silence while Malwick fiddled with the key.

"Not on my watch of course." said the goblin. "You're perfectly safe, just don't stand up." the door to vault 687 creaked open.

James entered the safe first, there were mounds of gold, silver, and bronze coins in piles inside of the vault.

"Fill this bag, James." said his dad tossing a small leather pouch to his son.

It didn't take long for both bags to be full and for them to be zooming back down the tunnel with Malwick. And James wasn't disappointed to get off at the end, the first time was fun, but going backward made him a bit nauseous.

"Alright, bud," said his dad while they walked out of the bank. "What do we need to get first?"

"I want to get my wand first." James replied.

"Well that's all the way back where we came from, why don't we start with Madam Malkin's Robes." he said pointing to a quaint little store ahead. "Then we can make our way toward the Leaky Cauldron and pick up your wand on the way back."

They walked into the shop together and were greeted by a squat little witch dressed in purple.

"Welcome to Madam Malkin's dear, are you here for Hogwarts?"

"Yep." replied James.

"Alright dear, if you will please stand up here for me." she said pointing at a wooden stool.

James stepped up and Madam Malkin threw a black robe over his head. She had multiple pins in her mouth and lent down to trim his robes.

"I'm going to need three of these, a winter cloak with silver fastenings, and a pointed hat." he said.

"Of course dear, as soon as I finish with this." he thought she said, but she still had a lot of pins in her mouth.

Ten minutes later he was leaving with all of his school apparel.

Then they made their way to Flourish & Blott's for his books.

"Alright," said Fleamont. "You find these three books, and I'll find the rest."

"Dad, they're right there." James said pointing toward a shelf labeled 'Hogwarts'.

They walked down past shelves labeled 'Hogwarts seven', 'Hogwarts six', 'Hogwarts five', 'Hogwarts four', 'Hogwarts three', 'Hogwarts two', and 'Hogwarts one'. In a perfect line were all the books he needed.

"Well that was convenient." said Fleamont.

They paid for the books and continued; they bought James' dragon hide gloves, crystal phials, brass scales, and telescope.

"All we have left it your cauldron and wand."

They walked into the Cauldron shop and from every shelf were hundreds of cauldrons of every type. Gold, silver, pewter, black, rainbow, one that changed colors, and ones that screamed if you got the ingredients wrong.

"Pewter, standard size 2." said Fleamont holding up a cauldron. "I'll go pay for this."

James took to looking at every cauldron in the store and listening to other people's conversations. He had always been really good at ease dropping, there hasn't be a Christmas that he could remember that he didn't know at least one item he was getting.

" _Go on nobody will see you_." said one of two five-year old's behind him. 'clunk' one of the five-year old's climbed into a particularly large cauldron. " _I'm stuck_."

" _No not that one_." came a middle aged witch's voice from next to him.

" _Son, can I help you with-? OW_!" a boy around James' age had dropped the cauldron he was holding onto a man's foot. The man pulled his foot out from under it and the cauldron rolled across the floor.

James lent down and picked it up, he carried it back and placed it back on the shelf.

"Thanks." said the boy who had dropped it.

"Peter, you'd better apologize to Kent." came a woman's voice.

"You ready?" asked his dad finally meeting up with him and putting the purchased cauldron onto the trolley that James was leaning against.

"How 'bout lunch before we get your wand?"

So they took to the Leaky Cauldron. James had dumpling soup and a small cherry pie, his dad had a small steak.

"Dad?" said James.

"Hmm?"

"I was just wondering, how were you sorted into your house at Hogwarts?" he asked.

"You worried?" asked his dad with steak in his mouth."

"No." said James sitting up straighter. "Never, I was just wondering."

"You put on a hat." said James' dad gesturing toward his head. "The hat was said to belong to Godrick Gryffindor, you know, the founder of Gryffindor, and it's suppose to look into your head to see whether your loyal, clever, brave, or a git. You don't have to do anything."

James absentmindedly relaxed a bit.

Ten minutes later they were on their way to the very end of the strip toward Ollivander's where he would finally get his wand.

"Are you nervous?" asked his dad.

"About what?"

"About which wand will choose you? It could be a really small or dainty wand, or it could be made of pink wood."

"Please," said James puffing himself up. "My wand is going to look awesome."

They entered the wand shop. It was a creepy place with a high ceiling and wand boxed covering nearly every surface except the dusty floor. There was a small line of students in front of him, which, he wouldn't admit, but he was happy about, this way he could watch what he was supposed to do. His dad left to sit on a spindly chair next to a wizard who look so old that the slightest touch could knock him over.

He watched over the other two kids shoulders at the boy testing out wands. But was forced standing upright because a long measuring tape came zooming from a drawer and began measuring him. He just noticed that the two kids in front of him were being measured now too. The tape measured his arms, waist, height, legs, shoulders, head, toes, nose, eyebrows, wrist, and hair length. Finally, the measuring tape zoomed back into its drawer when 'WHOOOSH' a gold wind flew right through him and around the room from the boy's wand. Everyone in the room clapped. The next girl stood up and now James was close enough to hear what Mr. Ollivander was saying. "Awe eccentric this one, eccentric. Give me your hand dear."

"Nervous?" asked the boy in front of him turning around.

"No." James replied a bit stiffly.

"I am." said the other boy. "I've sweat more in the past three minutes than I have in all my life."

"Okay, ewe." said James. "And I doubt that."

Suddenly the room was illuminated by blue and white fireworks. The whole room applauded.

"Awe," he could hear Ollivander say. "12 ½ inches, elder wood, phoenix tale feather, hard flexibility. My, my, you take good care of that wand. Elder wood makes a very powerful wand. You are going to be something else Miss. Daniels."

The blonde girl walked away glowing.

"Mr. Kemp." said Ollivander. A measuring tape came zooming from the drawer and into Mr. Ollivander's hands. "Aw," he said peering at the measurements. "I think I have just the wand for you." he walked down an isle of wand boxes and from the very bottom shelve. "This Mr. Kemp, is probably in my top ten oldest wands. Try it out."

The boy took the wand and gave it a quick 'swoosh' motion and from the tip came water that splashed onto the floor, but left it dry. The room applauded.

"Very good, yes very good. 10 ¼ inches, oak, unicorn tale hair, hard flexibility."

The boy paid, then walked away, and James stepped up; there was a line behind him now. A measuring tape came from the drawer and flew into Mr. Ollivander's hands, and he gazed at it. "Hhmm. . ." he said and turned toward the shelve behind him and began sorting through boxes. James could see Mr. Ollivander clearly now that, that kid's big head was out of the way. He was very old, but lively, he had misty gray eyes, and white hair, and was very pale.

"Try this." he said turning around with a black, sleek and shiny wand. James took it and felt it in his hands. He went to wave it, but Ollivander caught his arm. "Nope." he said taking it back from James. "Try this one instead." He handed James a yellowish looking one. James went to point it at something but it was snatched out of his hand causing his arm to swing limply at his side. "Nope." Ollivander said again. James looked at his dad in disbelief. His dad just shrugged and smiled. "Try this."

Five more time this happened. James was starting to get annoyed and angry.

"How about this?"

"No…"

"This one?"

"Unlucky again."

"Try, try."

"Ah."

"Here, take it!"

James took the wand. "Ow!" he dropped it.

"Ohh!" said Ollivander. "I think that might be the one."

"The one?" asked James. "It shocked me!"

"Yes well, wands are supposed to send a message to their owner, some messages are stronger than others."

"Stronger? That things going to electrocute me!"

"James pick it up." said his dad.

He lent down and cautiously retrieved the wand from the floor; it didn't shock him this time. He waved it in the air, black crystals came from the tip of his wand and disappeared before they hit the ground.

"Very good!" said Mr. Ollivander. "11 inches, mahogany, unicorn hair core, pliable, this wand is particularly good at transfiguration."

Mr. Fleamont paid for the wand and he, and his son, left the store.

"What do you think?" he asked.

"It's a little plain." James admitted. It was a straight piece of wood, light brown, with sharp edges, no markings.

"It doesn't really matter what it looks like though, it's the power within the wand."

"That's easy for you to say, yours is awesome."

". . . you know my wand has unicorn hair too."

"Really?"

"Yup, it has never let me down. It makes a loyal wand, and it picks up pretty quickly. Or perhaps it was just the wizard using it." he ruffled James' hair. "Still have that bag of gold?" he asked

"Yeah," James replied. "We haven't used it yet."

"I want you to spend it." said his dad. "You have one hour, I'll be here, you go get whatever you want."

James' face split into a wide grin.

"Just don't go to Knockturn Alley." Fleamont warned sternly. "Now go on, get out of here."

James smiled still wider and ran in the opposite direction toward his favorite shop.

By the time he arrived at Quality Quidditch Supply, he was very out of breath. He entered the shop, and it was the same as it always was, spectacular. Broomsticks of the most beautiful shades and styles took up all of one wall, three brooms sat on pedestals and were occupied by a large group of young wizards. There were loud 'BANG, BANG, BANGS' coming from a cage containing bludgers, and little 'prik, prik, priks' coming from a smaller cage containing golden snitches. Quaffles were in boxes on shelves. The rest of the store was dedicated to famous Quidditch teams merchandise. They had shirts, hats, flags, models of the teams, cups, rosettes, face paint, pillows, seat cushions, bed sets, and posters.

On a separate shelve was the actual Quidditch gear such as the knee pads, elbow guards, cloaks, gloves and goggles.

And on another shelve was dedicated to just Hogwarts, it being the best wizarding school in Britain. They had crowd supplies for each house to cheer on their Quidditch teams. The shelve was split into four sections, blue and bronze for Ravenclaw, yellow and black for Hufflepuff, scarlet and gold for Gryffindor, and silver and green for Slytherin.

James, of course, took as much Gryffindor merchandise as his arms could carry. He put is scarlet and gold hat over his untidy black hair and walked into the sun. It was hot specially with his hat, that he wasn't about to take off, so he stopped by Florean & Flotescue's Ice Cream Parlor. He ate his chocolate and apple ice cream as he walked back toward his dad laden with shopping bags. He stopped next to the Gringotts bank which turned onto Knockturn Alley. Temptation.

James thought for a moment. The Alley to his left took a steep decline and was shadowed by the buildings on either side. A cold wind swept toward him from the narrow street and the sound of cackling and shop bells reached his ears.

"What time is it?" James asked a friendly looking witch walking by with a cat.

"It's 1:45." she replied, then walked away.

1:45, he still had 15 minutes. But of course, this being James, kind of reckless, kind of daring, and his father's son, turned down the alley way.

Everything was surprisingly dim, odd, it was so much sunnier seven seconds ago. He knew that this place was geared only toward dark wizards. The people down this strip looked dodgy. He got a great many looks and uncomfortable eye contact as he made is way down the walk.

He took his bright hat off as not to attract as much attention.

His eye was caught by a sign that said _'Giant Spiders'_ he turned into the shops front door which rang when he opened it. There were cages all around the room, on the walls, in the middle of the floor, in the corners, and hanging from the ceiling, housed spiders of every shape and size and eggs were in little crates along the shelving. He looked up to see a giant spider taking up most of the ceiling with its body, its legs were resting on four shelves at each four corners of the room. James just hoped it was dead. He decided to leave when he walked through a spider web and ruined his ice cream. Also because he stepped on an egg. He didn't think that the manager would take kindly to hundreds of baby spiders running across his floor.

He threw his ice cream away in front of a store of shrunken heads, the sign said 'Of Age to Enter' so naturally, he walked in anyway. . . but walked right back out when he saw that the store was doing a demonstration.

He wasn't even going to try the shop 'Poisonous Candles' the smell just walking by was unbearable.

Deciding that he was bored, he started back up the alley toward Diagon Alley.

A hand with long fingernails suddenly grabbed him around the neck.

"What do you think you're doing?" said a shriveled man with black teeth and bad breath.

"Well I _believe_ I'm walking here, and would appreciate if you kept your claws off of me, thanks." James replied bravely, grabbing the hand and pulling it off of him.

"You're not going anywhere without trying one of these." said the wizard holding out a pan of round, black. . . food? With a toothpick stabbed into it.

"Thanks, but no." James replied. "I'm on a poison diet. And I don't except unidentified food from strangers in a dark alleys anymore, trying to kick the habit."

And he walked away rubbing his neck where the wizard had grabbed him.

He met with his dad who was sitting outside Ollivanders reading a newspaper.

"Quality Quidditch is the only store you visited?" asked his dad standing up finally.

"Nah," said James. "I got ice cream too."


	3. A Couple New Friends

A few weeks had pass since Diagon Alley, and everyday went slower than the last; that happens when you're strongly anticipating something.

James' mom had, while he and his dad were out buying his school stuff, cleaned his room. That made it easier to find what he needed to pack. He had already removed the posters from his wall and packed most of his clothes. He had spent nearly every moment awake, practicing in books. Sure he hated reading, but he wanted to learn as many spells as he could before school. He couldn't practice with his wand because if the spell actually worked he would be in trouble with the Ministry of Magic for under aged magic now that he had a wand. So all he could do was study the incantations and wand movements for the spell without actually doing them. James had always been a competitive kid, he can't be second best, he had to know more than the others at school; it would make him seem smarter.

His mom had made him a calendar counting down the days until 1st September, which he thought was awesome until he found out that she had put a spell on it which made the calendar scream out how many days were left until school always at 7:30am which was when she wanted him to start getting up. The calendar was put under the rug, until the sixth day it screamed when James pulled it from the rug and through it out of the window.

It was the night before 1st September. He slept unsoundly that night, something like falling asleep on Christmas Eve. He had packed all his books, equipment, and robes in his trunk which was set below his bed. He had gotten out of bed later that night and heard his mom crying in the kitchen.

"Hush now, Euphemia." he could hear his dad saying. "He is a strong boy he'll take care of himself."

"But- But what if he's bullied?" She sobbed.

"Then I feel sorry for the kid who bullied him; he's got another thing coming."

James decided to skip his midnight drink and go back to bed.

He woke himself the next morning at eight o'clock. He had dressed in his muggle (non-magic people) clothes because they would be using the muggle entrance to get to the train.

He had dressed, brushed his teeth, skipped his hair, and lugged his trunk down the stairs and into the kitchen.

"Morning, mum." he said sitting at the table.

"Good morning sweetheart." she replied. "I made your favorite." she set in front of him, a large plate of waffles with whipped cream and strawberries. "It being your last day." she was looking at him with anxiety. James took her hand in his.

"Mum, I'll be fine."

She took a deep breath and kissed him on the head. "Of course you will." she said smiling and turned quickly toward the sinks.

James ate his breakfast, brushed his teeth again, and checked himself in the mirror. His lip was no longer swollen, and his black eye looked completely gone, only if you touch it, it would still hurt.

"You ready bud?" said his dad ruffling his hair.

"Yeah, are we leaving now?" he replied excitedly.

"We have to wait for your mom to fix her hair."

Twenty minutes later they had James' trunk in the back, and were heading out the door and took fathers car to King's Cross.

Almost the entire ride consisted of James talking about things he'll do at Hogwarts, the Quidditch matches he'll watch when he's there, what he's going to do on the express. Fleamont talked back and forth with James about his own school days and gave James advise about the teachers and what to look out for. Euphemia just nodded and smiled mostly, she looked as if she opened her mouth that she would begin to cry. They arrived at the station a little while later. It didn't take them long to get his ticket.

They walked across the platforms pass other muggles. They seemed to be attracting many looked from passersby. James looked down at his muggle clothes wondering if he had done something wrong, but seemed to be dressed just like the other boys his age, in fact, he was wearing the same exact shirt as one of the muggle boys he passed. He realized later, that the looks were probably due to his trolley, which was laden with boxes, trunks, and a cauldron.

His father stopped them before the divider between platforms 9 and 10. James practically skipped with excitement, he had wanted to do this.

His mother went first, she ran straight at the barrier as if she was going to collide with it, but right when she was on top of it, she disappeared. His dad took him by the shoulder, because it was his first time, and ran at the wall. There was a _whoosh_ sensation as they hit the wall and suddenly they found themselves on a completely different platform; platform 9 ¾.

It was completely different from the muggle's King's Cross, there were people in cloaks, with cats, rats, bats, and tall hats. Hundreds of other students all with trolleys, all looking excited. The first year, like himself, were easy to spot, not by their age, but the fact that they all had terrified looks on their faces; a couple of them were crying.

However, James was radiant with excitement, the feeling of exhilaration went down his spine and tingled in his fingers.

His dad helped him load his trunk onto the train and stood back.

"Four minutes to eleven." he said looking at his watch.

"I want to get a good seat." James said.

"Alright bud." his dad replied, and he bent down and hugged him. James was surprised by this, the only other time he could remember him doing this, was after a bad Quidditch accident where he, James, sprained his neck. His dad stood up and ruffled his hair again, which he was more used to.

His mom bent down and hugged him tight, then she kissed his nose, and his head, and hugged him again. James felt his face go red though nobody was watching.

"Alright now, get on board." said his mom pulling out a large yellow handkerchief and wiping at her eyes. He didn't have to be told twice, he smiled then ran onto the train.

The compartments were filling fast but at the very back of the train was an empty stall. He slid the door open and sat down. . . every outside sound went muffled until he opened the window to see his parents for the last time before he left. His mother was crying and his father had his arm around her. When he saw James, he waved and smiled.

"Have fun, son!" called his father. His mother looked up now.

"Oh, be safe James!" she called. Fleamont, who was standing a step behind her, shook his head and said.

"Just have fun!" with a wink.

James gave one last wave, and closed the window. Everything went quiet again. People kept walking by this compartment usually with someone else. The girls walked arm in arm and the guys walked bumping and scrapping against the hall on the way down talking in booming voices.

His compartment door slid open and a boy his age entered. He had dark, wavy hair and a smart face. He sat opposite James and smiled.

"First year?" James asked sitting back and putting his hands behind his head. He could tell that it was the boys first year but, you know, conversation.

"Yeah, and yours too I'd assume?" the boy replied.

"Yup." he said. "I'm James Potter."

"Sirius." he replied also relaxing in his chair now.

Sirius pulled a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavored Beans from his robe pocket.

"Ohh," said James pointing. "I have those all the time. Actually, I'm able to identify each one by its color now; I always win."

"You want to play then?" Sirius asked grinning.

The train gave a jerk and started puffing away. James rushed to the window and waved one last time at his parents who were still standing on the platform.

"Not going to say bye to your folks?" he asked sitting back down.

"Nah." Sirius replied. "They're not here right now anyway."

"Why not? Didn't they want to see you off?"

Sirius shrugged. "They don't like people." he said. There was a pause.

"Okay, fork em' up." James said with his hands out stretched.

"I'm not going to put them in your hand if you can recognize them." Sirius said.

"Alright," said James. "Throw them in my mouth." James leaned back in his chair and opened his mouth.

"Ow, no that was my glasses," said James.

"I'm going to have like fifteen in my hair.'"

"No, that went down my shirt."

"Ow! How is it even possible for you to get one through my glasses to hit my eye."

Sirius was laughing and now throwing them randomly or at once.

"Okay, you have truly horrible at aim." said James. "Give em' here, let me try." Sirius handed James the box and opened his mouth. James took the first one and held it in mid-air with one eye shut. . . aiming. . .

"For the love of Merlin, throw it already, ow."

"You weren't supposed to talk." said James. "I would have made it if you hadn't closed your mouth."

"I wouldn't have had to open my mouth if you didn't throw like a bloody turtle." Sirius replied.

"Shhh." James held up another one with an eye shut and threw. Direct hit!

Sirius threw his fist in the air triumphantly while chewing.

"I don't know why your celebrating, I made the shot." James laughed.

Sirius gagged and spit the bean out. "Tripe." he gagged. And both boys laughed. The train hit a large bump which caused the jelly beans in James' hand to fly everywhere. Both boys rolled over laughing and Sirius stood up to shake them from his robes. The compartment door opened and closed gently as a girl with dark red hair entered. She sat next to the window and turned away without talking.

Jelly beans were scattered all along the floor and seats.

"Do you collect chocolate frog cards?" asked James.

"Nah, I don't eat them too often." Sirius replied,

"What? Why not?"

"It's not like I don't like them." said Sirius. "I just don't get them to often."

James looked awestruck. "Hold on." he said standing up and looking outside the compartment door. "I'll be back." James left the compartment and walked down the corridor to the food trolley which was several compartments away. The plump witch was serving a compartment of third year girls.

"Oh," said the witch when she saw him. "Eager aren't you?"

"Chocolate frogs." he said and a moment later he was walked back into the compartment with an arm full of candy. He sat back down and tossed a chocolate frog to Sirius who caught it grinning.

"I'm still missing quite a few in my collection." said James. "I always seem to get hundreds of the same ones."

"I don't have any." said Sirius.

"You should start a collection yourself." said James taking a bite of an apple tart.

The compartment door opened again and a first year boy entered, he had long black hair and a hooked nose. He walked pass them in a slouch and seemed to lack confidence or the air of superiority; he looked weak. The boy sat down opposite the girl still in the corner.

When the boy passed, James and Sirius noticed him step on a few of the jelly beans that were on the floor and got stuck to his foot.

James and Sirius started laughing.

"Hey look," said Sirius opening another chocolate frog, the frog jumped out of the box and Sirius caught it. "If you take off its arms and legs," he said taking off the chocolate frogs limbs. "It rolls around all funny."

James looked over the frog and smiled. "It looks pathetic." he said.

Sirius threw it at him. And in an instant James had dove forward and caught it in his mouth. They laughed because he looked ridiculous doing this.

The two next to them had been having a conversation but seemed to have stopped for a moment. James caught a snippet of what the boy was saying.

"You'd better be in Slytherin." said the black haired boy.

"Slytherin?" said James in disbelief addressing the boy for the first time. "Who wants to be in Slytherin? I'd leave, wouldn't you?" he asked Sirius.

Sirius looked suddenly grim. "My whole family have been in Slytherin." he said.

"Blimey," said James in surprise. "and I thought you were alright!"

Sirius grinned. "Maybe I'll brake the tradition Where are you heading, if you've got the choice?" Sirius said.

"Gryffindor!" said James holding up a pretend sword. "Where dwell the brave at heart! Like my dad."

The other boy made a small snort. James let the fake sword fall and looked at him angrily.

"Got a problem with that?"

"No," said the boy unconvincingly. "If you'd rather be brawny than brainy."

James felt anger toward the boy who had just insulted his dad.

"Where are you hoping to go, seeing as you're neither?" said Sirius smartly.

James roared with laughter and nudged his knee in a ' _good one_ ' sort of way.

The girl sat up and looked at our boys in dislike.

"Come on Severus, let's find another compartment."

"Oooooo. . ." James and Sirius imitated her voice at the same time.

The girl walked out first, Severus following. James stuck his foot out hoping that the boy would stumble over it on his way out, seeing as he didn't, James just yelled, "See yah, Snivellus!"

Sirius roared with laughter. "Snivellus, that's good!"

"I hope Hogwarts isn't gonna be crawling with people of his type." Said James with his nose upturned.

"I doubt it." Said Sirius lazily. "I'll be there anyway and I'm not like him."

James had a bad feeling about the boy and he didn't know why. Something about him made James uneasy. Sirius seemed to know that something was bothering him because he was staring confusedly.

"Do you play Quidditch?" asked James, changing the subject now.

"No, I want to though." Sirius replied.

"Oh it's the best!" said James enthusiastically.

But just then the compartment door slid open a bit and another boy poked his head in the door before James could explain why it was the best.

"Do you mind if I join you?" the boy asked.

Sirius gestured to the empty seats, so the boy walked in. He had wavy, dirty blonde hair and very second hand robes, his face was also scratched and scared. He sat in a corner and was looking down at his hands.

"You gonna tell us your name?" asked Sirius after a moment. The boy looked up.

"Remus." he said. "Remus Lupin."

"So what's the story?" asked James. "I mean with all the scars. Animal attack?" The boy surprisingly, smiled,

"Yes actually," he said. "Exactly."

"What did it?" asked James.

"A type of dog." replied Remus. "But what happened to you?"

"What do you mean?"

"Your black eye."

"How on earth could you tell? You can't even see it!"

"Under your left eye is a little green, you didn't notice?" Remus said.

"Uhh. . ." thought James. "I did a back flip, it was excellent, but I got this in the process."

"If it was really _excellent_ ," said Remus. "then you wouldn't have gotten a black eye."

Sirius laughed.

After a while the boys realized that they got along fairly well with Remus. He wasn't as out spoken as they were, but he was fairly smart and humble.

In the time that they were riding in that compartment, they were visited by a few other students, a blonde girl introducing herself to _everyone_ on the train, she must have been really bored, a fifth year boy hiding from his ex, and a couple of third year girls who wanted them to settle a debate.

After nine hours of riding, the sun was almost completely set and the boy's sleepy disillusion was setting in.

"Would you rather," asked James to Remus laying upside down over his seat. "floss your teeth with Sirius' hair? Or lick the train floor?"

"Hmm. . ." Remus thought. He looked at Sirius' long black hair, then to the carpeted floor covered in jelly beans, cauldron cake crumbs, hair, dirt, burn marks, and something sticky like a melted lollipop. "Lick the floor." Remus replied.

"What!" exclaimed Sirius. "My hair isn't that bad!"

"Yes, it is." he replied.

"Well go on then." said James.

Remus wrinkled his nose in discuss but got onto his hands and knees anyway. He rubbed the floor with his hands examining it closely.

"Come on already!" said Sirius.

"Give me a moment!" said Remus from the floor. "This is against my better judgment; I don't want to die."

"Yes please don't die." said James, becoming interested in Sirius' shoelaces and untying them. "That'll be an awful lot of paperwork work to fill out."

Finally finding the cleanest place on the floor, Remus poked the tip of his tongue on the carpet and jumped back into his chair cleaning his tongue off with his robes.

"Alright, your turn." said James.

"Would you rather," Remus said turning to Sirius. "Floss your teeth with _my_ hair? Or go hit on the trolley lady?"

"Ugh, floss with your hair." Sirius replied.

Remus pulled a couple hairs from his head. "You have _no_ idea where this has been."

"Well it's not dirty," Sirius replied. "You seem like the type of person who showers twice a day, I could smell you stepping into the compartment."

He lifted the hair to his mouth then paused. "May I just say, this is the first time I have flossed all year."

"I can tell." said James. Remus laughed.

After Sirius did it, he asked James, "Would you rather. . ." he looked around. "Stick your head out the window with your tongue out like a dog until we arrive. . . or. . ." he thought for a moment then a grin spread across his face. "or hit on the trolley lady." Remus guffawed.

"That's not a fair one!" exclaimed James. "Come on, give me another."

"No." said Remus wiping his eyes with the back of his hand. "That's a perfectly reasonable challenge that does not threaten your life or health; though Sirius having me lick the floor did threaten my health."

James thought for a moment with his nose scrunched.

"The window. . ." he said finally.

Sirius gestured toward it with a smile and James opened the window, stuck his head out, and immediately pulled back.

"It's freezing out there I'll die!" he said.

"Don't be a drama queen." said Sirius. "Suck it up and do it."

James re-opened the window and stuck his head back out for 1,2,3-

"Forget it! I'm hitting on the trolley lady!" and he slammed the window.

He tore from the compartment and slammed the door behind him. Remus and Sirius sat back down laughing then quickly stopped.

"How do we know whether or not he'll actually do it?" said Remus.

"One of us better go with him. I think it should be me because I dared him." said Sirius running from the compartment.

"I want to see it too!" called Remus running after him.

They caught up to James striding down the corridor.

"You'd better tell her that her eyes are as bright as diamonds." said Sirius putting his arm around James' neck.

"No that'd sound too corny. You should look at her and say, 'When you walk by my compartment, I find myself at a loss of breath due to your radiance. When you smile it makes me feel as though, my life has no purpose but to smile with you. The squeak of your cart wheels causes my heart to leap, and your knock on my compartment door, synchronizes with its pounding beat. For every year I wait for this express, to keep my soul, from great depress."

The boys had stopped to stare at him. "Who had you been practicing that for?" asked Sirius.

"My mum writes poetry…" said Remus sheepishly, as though rhyming to these new – cooler – kids was a bad idea.

"Look, you'll do fine." said Sirius slapping James on the back.

"Get off me guys, it's not as if I actually _like_ this chick." said James finally opening the door which led to the front of the train.

And there he saw the trolley snogging the driver. They pulled apart quickly at the sight of him before James closed the door again.

"Nope!" he said throwing his hands in the air and turning around to leave.

"Oh, no!" said Sirius. "You haven't completed your mission." and he spun James back around.

"Can't I just lick the floor?" he pleaded. Sirius opened the door again and pushed James inside.

The trolley lady was now tidying her cart.

"Would you like something dear?" she asked blushing.

"Uh. . ." James thought. Sirius crept up behind his ear. "Say, your eyes are so. . . ow!" James stepped on his foot.

"I'm looking for something… sweet." he said finally leaning against the door frame _coolly_.

"Candy?" the trolley lady asked confused.

"Something. . . sweeter." he said making eye contact.

"Uh, sugar quill?" she asked.

". . . Yes. . . I would like a sugar quill." he said.

He took some silver from his pocket and paid for his sweet then closed the door behind him to find Sirius and Remus standing there with their arms crossed.

"That doesn't count." said Remus.

"It does count! I hit on her, whether she got it or not, that's her problem."

Sirius and Remus roared with laughter.

"It's not that funny." said James walking back down the corridor.

"It is!" said Remus. "Don't be boring."


	4. The Sorting

On the way back to their compartment, the train made a powerful lurch which knocked the boys off their feet and they piled on top of each other.

"What in the name of-"

"Maybe if the driver spent more time focusing on the track and not James' girlfriend." said Sirius.

"Shut up." said James.

They stood up again and saw through one of the windows on a neighboring compartment, the castle.

All three boys sped through the door to get a closer look.

"Wow." said Remus. "And I didn't think I was ever going to see this place."

"Why not?" asked James. "If you're a wizard you were bound to get an invitation."

"Excuse me." said a sassy girl's voice. "But your standing on my robe."

"Oh I'm sorry." said Remus moving to the left.

"That's alright. It's not like their new or anything."

The boys left the compartment and started walking toward the back of the train.

"Well she was rude." said Remus.

"Sarcasm isn't rude." said James. "It's just a language you need to get used to if you're going to be my friend."

From the corner of James' eye, he noticed Remus reveal a quickly stifled smile.

By the time they reached their compartment again, the castle was out of sight.

"Why-" started Remus. "Did we go all the way to the back of the train if we're just going to get right back up?"

The boys looked around at each other, then scrambled back out to wait instead, by the train door.

It wasn't long until the train came to a complete stop, but it took a while longer until the doors opened and they were allowed to get off.

Finally, they had left the train but were almost trampled by girls getting off too.

"Firs' year! Firs' year come over here!" came a loud, deep voice.

Considering they were first year, they followed. And they found themselves in front of the largest man they had ever seen. He was at least nine feet tall and had an incredible mane of bushy brown hair and beard; you could only see his eyes and nose.

"Come on! Over here firs' years! Don' wanna be left behind!"

Soon there were at least fifty first years gathered around, and off they went following the giant's huge boots.

He led them through a path along a slippery bank.

"Right up over the hill, you'll see Hogwarts." said the giant.

And there it was. It was Magnificent, but their attention to the castle was interrupted by the sound of strangled sobs next to them.

There was a blonde girl beside James who was crying.

"Why are you crying?" asked Remus. "This is exciting not sad."

"I-I-" sobbed the girl. "I'm so scared!"

"Of what!" laughed Sirius. "They only throw you into the lake with the giant squid when you miss a question during a test. So just study."

"That's not helping." said Remus as the girl let out a fearful sob into James' robe.

"Yeah," said James. "These _were_ clean."

"What? Humor, it always calms me down." shrugged Sirius.

James tried carefully to pull his robe from her fists, but she only gripped harder and buried her face into them. James glared at Sirius as he laughed.

They ended up right at the lakes edge, and before them were at least twelve little row boats.

"Alright!" called the giant. "Four to a boat! Only four to a boat!"

Remus and Sirius climbed into one of the boats and James stepped one foot in and tried to pull the blonde girl off his arm.

"James it's four to a boat," said Remus. "She could-"

"Shhhh!" said James looking around.

He reached out and grabbed a random boy from the crowd so it would make four, leaving the girl out. Realizing that the boy he had just grabbed was the boy, Snivellus, from the train, James threw him back like a small fish. He looked at the girl, rolled his eyes, and climbed into the boat, her following.

Remus and Sirius were laughing into their sleeves.

The boats started forward through the water by themselves.

It seemed like every minute that went by, the girl would get closer. She had already had her face in his sleeve, but now she was holding onto his whole arm.

"She's not even crying now." James mouthed to the others. "She's just, hugging my arm."

Then what felt like hours later, the boats bumped the bank and all the students clambered out. In the process of leaving the boats, James had managed to pull his arm from hers. She looked up at him with watery eyes and he weakly smiled and patted her awkwardly on the back, then _'casually'_ hurried next to Remus. They made their way through a cave looking thing and came up a passage way in front of two huge oak front doors. The giant swung them open and led the students into the biggest foyer any of them have probably ever seen. Made of marble with a ginormous chandler light by candles above. They stood there for a moment, the giant seemed to be waiting for something. What he had been waiting for came at last. A woman dresses in indigo robes came striding over. She had a stern but smart face and a tight bun on top of her head.

"Thank you Hagrid for getting them here safely. I will take them now." She said.

"Of course." said Hagrid nodding and walking through a pair of double doors where a bunch of chatter was coming from. James assumed that was where the great hall was.

"Come along." said the woman.

She led them through a door which brought them into a small side room.

"Look up here." called the woman. "I am Professor McGonagall; I will be with you for the rest of the year. Soon, you will be led into the great hall where you will be sorted into your house. For those of you who don't know, the houses are Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw. While you are at Hogwarts your house will be your family, you will compete against the other houses in sports and for the end of year Hogwarts house cup. But let that not mean that you become prejudice toward the other houses. You may be separated, but you are all Hogwarts students despite your house.

"I will go let the headmaster know we're ready now. You wait here." and she left the room.

James heard the blonde girl sob from behind him, he jumped and hurried in front of Sirius, away from her. Chatter arose around the room, a couple of boys were trying to scare a few girls,

"Don't be scared." said one of the girls with her arm around a particularly short little girl.

"Don't tell her that." said a boy turning around toward them. "She has every right to be scared. This is the biggest moment of our lives. You know they sort us by having us battle dogs. Depending on how we handle that situation will determine which house we'll be in."

The short girl gasped in horror.

"Dogs aren't too bad." said the other girl.

"Don't lie to them." said another boy. "They're not just dogs. They're werewolves."

"Yeah that's what I heard." said, yet, another boy smirking.

"Yep, they keep a couple in a cage behind the teachers table. But don't worry, only a few students die each year. The teachers are usually able to fight them off if it gets too bloody. I know, I have brothers at Hogwarts. But really, if you don't succeed in battling the werewolves, you'll be sent home."

"Why don't you shut up!" said Remus turning around suddenly.

The three boys stopped smiling and looked suddenly grim. "What? You don't think it's important to prepare them?"

"I think it would be better if you turn around and stop tormenting these poor girls." said Remus. Sirius and James watched in surprise.

"We're just trying to help." said the boys saintly.

"Don't give me that crap!" Remus replied rolling his eyes. "You're just feeding them rubbish. Look-" he turned to the girls. "You just try on this stupid hat and it will tell you where you should go. You don't have to do anything. And there are _no_ werewolves behind the teachers table, there's just a spare room. I read it in _Hogwarts, a History_ it gives the entire floor plan."

The girl was looking at Remus in a ' _my hero_ ' sort of way, the boys were looking at him as if he was a teacher who took their spit ball straw away. Remus turned back around sternly. Sirius and James just looked at each other, then raised their eyebrows and turned around too.

"Alright children." said McGonagall coming back through the door. "Get in a line right here, that's right, good. Now follow me."

The students marched after McGonagall and found themselves standing in front of the teachers table. Behind them was the great hall with an ocean of older students sitting at four long tables wearing black pointed hats. McGonagall waved her wand and conjured up a three legged, very old stool, and placed a pointed wizards hat on top of it. The hat was tattered and torn with patches all across it.

McGonagall stood back and stared at it; so did everyone else. A tare at the brim grew bigger and began to sing.

 _A bit about myself,_

 _For you have never seen me,_

 _I am smart and I am clever,_

 _I am bold and I am brave,_

 _I am strong and I am loyal,_

 _I am ambitiousness and won't take toil._

 _Some say it takes one to know one,_

 _And this I will do,_

 _For all these things are me,_

 _And some of them are you._

 _For if you're bold you may be Gryffindor,_

 _Strong but also reckless,_

 _If smart you may be Ravenclaw,_

 _Always eager for learning,_

 _Your minds are always turning,_

 _Slytherins are resourceful,_

 _They always find a way,_

 _Hufflepuffs are loyal,_

 _They will do what they say._

 _All you must do, is put me on your head,_

 _I will look within, and do as I said._

 _I will place you in your home with others like you,_

 _And they will be your family, they will do as you do._

 _So step up first years and take the test,_

 _And I will put you where you will do best._

The tare closed up and the great hall applauded loudly. McGonagall pulled a scroll out from her robe pocket and said to the crowd.

"When I call your name, you will come up here, sit on the stool, and place the hat on your head."

"Annaboat, Wittle!"

A girl walked up onto the platform, sat on the stool, and placed the hat on her head. It wasn't long until the hat yelled,

"Ravenclaw!"

And made the other first years jump. The crowd applauded and Wittle walked over to the Ravenclaw table and sat where the older students patted her on the back.

"Aplle, Amone!"

"Ravenclaw!"

"Atkins, Terra!"

"Gryffindor!"

"Beardnen, Hanse!"

"Slytherin!"

"Billmor, Henrey!"

"Slytherin!"

"Black, Sirius!"

Sirius smiled grimly at James and Remus, and after James hit him on the back, he continued up to the stool and slipped the hat over his head, not smiling. It took a moment longer than the others but finally the hat called.

"Gryffindor!"

Sirius pulled the hat off his head to revel a face that looked as if a death penalty had been lifted. Everyone applauded and Sirius ran through the crowd of first years, where James ruffled his hair, and joined the Gryffindor table. And it went on,

"Bymond, Berry!"

"Hufflepuff!"

"Cole, Thomas!"

"Slytherin!"

"Dalbert, Ezekiel!"

"Gryffindor!"

"Dapple, Daisy!"

"Hufflepuff!"

"Dion, Danielle!"

"Ravenclaw!"

"Donivek, Sillmorr!"

"Ravenclaw!"

"Evens, Lily!"

It was the red head girl who had been in their compartment with Snivellus.

"Gryffindor!"

James snorted. Poor Snivellus won't be with his _girlfriend_.

"Garfield, Wesley!"

"Hufflepuff!"

"Gilmorr, Stacy!"

It was the girl who had been crying into his sleeve.

"Slytherin!"

James wasn't expecting that.

"Illins, Jack!"

"Gryffindor!"

"Izzion, Isiah!"

It was the sweaty kid from Ollivander's wand shop.

"Ravenclaw!"

"Joal, Penelope!"

"Hufflepuff!"

"Joal, Paxton!"

"Gryffindor!"

"Kinley, Skipper!"

"Gryffindor!"

"Klocks, Olivia!"

"Slytherin!"

"Lumeir, Quazzy!"

"Gryffindor!"

"Lupin, Remus!"

Remus walked up to put the hat on his head. The hat was on nearly a minute until it yelled,

"Gryffindor!"

And so it went on and on, until,

"Poppy, Kent!"

"Slytherin!"

"Potter, James!"

He walked up, slightly nervous. He sat on the hard stool and placed the hat over his head, which slipped over his eyes like it did to all the rest. What if he wasn't placed in Gryffindor? This thought swept through his mind for the first time. What will his had think? Then a small voice echoed around him.

"Well you're not difficult at all."

The sorting hat laughed.

"Gryffindor!" James heard it yell aloud.

He made his way through the crowd and sat on the opposite side of Sirius.

"Congrats!" James said to Sirius. "Looks like you broke the tradition."

The sorting went on and James watched as,

"Snape, Severus!"

Became,

"Slytherin!"

Finally, there was,

"Vizzini, Zachery!"

"Gryffindor!"

And it was over. McGonagall rolled up the scroll and placed it in her pocket. She waved her wand again so the stool would vanish and sat behind the teachers table. James saw many teachers, but the one who caught his eye, apart from Hagrid the giant, was the man sitting in the throne like chair at the middle. He had long silver white hair and beard, a pointed wizards hat, and twinkling blue eyes. James knew that he was the headmaster, he had collected many of his chocolate frog cards. This was Albus Dumbledore, a man who is thought by many to be the greatest wizard of the age. Dumbledore stood up and opened his arms which made the hall go silent.

"I am too hungry to think of anything to say, so let's eat!" and he sat back down. The hall applauded and in front of them appeared food of every sort. Every meat you would want, every type of bean, vegetable, type of bread, puddings. Everyone attacked the food like animals. Remus just sat there looking at the food opened mouthed.

"Why aren't you eating?" Sirius asked through a mouth full of potatoes. The red haired girl called Evens wrinkled her nose looking at him.

"I've just never seen so much food in my life."

"It tastes better than it looks." said James. "Here, how do you like your steak?"

"I haven't had steak in years." Remus replied.

"That must suck." said Sirius. "Well there's blue rare, meaning barely cooked, then rare, medium rare, medium, medium well, and well done."

"Well I want it cooked, but not dry." Remus relied.

"James, go ahead and give him medium." Sirius said slapping Remus on the back.

James plopped a large juicy steak onto Remus' plate. "Look, you have to eat it with this stuff." James said sliding a glass bottle of black liquid over to Remus. "It's Worcestershire sauce."

"I've never tried that with a steak." said Sirius looking at the bottle.

"Dude it's great! Try it!"

It wasn't long until the boys had eaten all that their pant buttons could bare. Looking at food made then sick even. Finally, all the food vanished from the plates and the boys let out a sigh of relief. Then before them, all the plated filled again with the most colorful assortment and smells of desserts. The guys groaned and collapsed onto the table.

"It's your own fault you know." said Evens, helping herself to a piece of chocolate cake. "Gluttony. That's what you guys are guilty of. It's quite stupid."

"Well I'm flattered you care so much." said James smirking.

She frowned and got back to her cake.

The desserts were cleared away almost entirely, James had tried to eat a cupcake but ended up spiting it back out onto Sirius' sleeve.

Dumbledore stood back up and the hall fell silent again. James thought it was impressive that Dumbledore could silence a room just by standing.

"I will start by saying welcome to Hogwarts! I expect this to be a very eventful year. I will remind you that the forest is forbidden to every student because it is, as most of you know, very dangerous. Quidditch trials will be held on the second week of term. Anyone who is looking to try out, please contact Madam hooch before the first week is over. I know that you are all tired, but before we go to bed, we will sing our school song. So pick your favorite tune and let's begin." and with his wand he made spiraling letters appear in the air and they began,

 _Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts,_

 _Teach us something please,_

 _Whether we be old and bald,_

 _Or young with scabby knees,_

 _Our heads could do with filling,_

 _With some interesting stuff,_

 _For now they're bare and full of air,_

 _Dead flies and bits of fluff,_

 _So teach us things worth knowing,_

 _Bring back what we've forgot,_

 _Just do your best, we'll do the rest,_

 _And learn until our brains all rot._

It sounded horrible because everyone finished at completely different times. Dumbledore seemed to enjoy it though because he was smiling and clapping.

"Oh I never get tired of that. Alright, off to bed, your prefects will show you where to go."

A tall fifth year boy with black curly hair stood up and shouted over the noise of chattering students and scraping benches.

"Follow me first years, I will take you to the Gryffindor dormitory."

The boys stood up, eager to get to bed, but when the stood, they groaned and grabbed their stomachs. They were led out of the great hall and up a marble staircase. The pictures in portraits along the walls were talking and pointing at them. The prefect brought them through a couple hidden passage ways and it seemed like every step they took drained a bit more energy.

"We have to walk all his way every day?" James asked Sirius. Sirius, however, looked as if he were to open his mouth he would vomit.

"It won't seem as long once we've slept all this food away." Remus replied.

Finally, they stopped in front of a portrait of a fat lady in a pink silk dress.

"Password?" asked the fat lady.

"Mulskin-dormeins." said the prefect, and the door swung open. "You'll have to remember that." said the boy, helping the students clamber through the open portrait. "Otherwise you won't be able to get inside."

Once everyone was in and the portrait was closed again, the prefect turned toward them.

"Alright, boy's dormitories are up this staircase toward the left, girls, yours will be on the right. Get some sleep tonight, we have classes tomorrow. If you need anything ask for me, my name is Samuel, or Pike if you want to be more formal."

The crowd dispersed when Sam did and nearly everyone rushed up the staircase. The boys hadn't even bothered looking around the common room, they were too tired to enjoy anything except their beds. They walked down the boy's hall and looked at the names under the doors with the number '1' on them. Until they found a plaque that said,

 _Ezekiel Dalbert,_

 _James Potter,_

 _Micky Ornando,_

 _Peter Pettigrew,_

 _Sirius Black,_

They glanced to the door on their left, which, among others, bore the name _Remus Lupin._ Remus bowed his head, then smiled weakly before grabbing the other doorknob.

"Hold up there, sport." Said Sirius. He strode over and grabbed the small plaque that bore Remus' name. With a bit of tugging, the metal bar popped off and Sirius did the same to Micky Ornando's name, switching them. "There." He smiled, dusting off his hands. "They don't keep track of this stuff anyway."

Remus looked at him with admiration. All of their bags had already been brought up and James took it upon himself to visit their neighbors saying that there had been a mistake and Micky's and Remus' trunk had gotten mixed up. The boys chose the beds nearest each other and fell on top of them, all except for Sirius who ran into the restroom.

"Oh, Hello." said a boy's voice coming out from under the covers of one of the beds that they hadn't chosen. "I'm Peter." he said.

"James, Remus, and Sirius is in the restroom." James' muffled voice replied through his pillow.

The door opened and a tall boy with brown wavy hair and blue eyes walked in. He too, collapsed onto his bed.

"Hi." said Peter. "I'm Peter, and this is Remus, James, and Sirius is in the restroom." Peter pointed at each one of them.

"No, I'm James that's Remus."

"Ezekiel." said the boy. "But you can call me Ezzy. I'm sure you are all great people, and we'll get to know each other tomorrow. But right now, I'm going to sleep."

"He's my favorite so far." said James. Remus threw a pillow at him. And that's all he can remember.


	5. A Stronger Man

That night James had a dream that he was in the great hall staring at the thousands of candles suspended in midair, illuminating the area. Suddenly the candles started to float in a ring above him. Then they sprouted wings and transformed into a type of waxy birds, darting strait toward James, the flame as their beaks. He tried to jump out of the way, to run, but his feet were stuck to the floor; he couldn't move them, as if gravity was heavily holding them to the stone ground.

James awoke with a start, or at least he thought he did, but his feet still couldn't move. He looked down to see Sirius curled up in a ball on his legs. Perplexed, James tried to nudge him off, but Sirius just stretched and resumed position.

"Sirius." James groaned. "Get off."

But he slept on. Finally, James had to throw his pillow at him, being too tired to sit up at the moment anyway. Sirius was hit in the face and woke blurry eyes and dazed.

"What are you trying to do?" asked Sirius sleepily and with his hair in his eyes, throwing the pillow back.

"Why are you on my feet?" asked James. Sirius looked down at what he was laying on.

"Oops, sorry mate." and he sitting up.

"Your bed is right there." said James pointing at a bed across from his own.

"Oh, see, by the time I got out of the bathroom, you all had the lights out and I couldn't find my bed. Well I thought I had but ended up laying on something squashy, I think it was a face, I hope it was Remus, it would've been awkward otherwise. Anyway, I found your glasses on the floor, well actually I stepped on them, they might have broken, sorry. I realized that this was your bed and just climbed on."

"That was a long story." said Remus sitting up from bed. "And that face wasn't mine."

About half an hour later the boys were dressed showered, and heading down the boy's staircase. The Gryffindor common room was very warm looking, though the weather was hot and sunny outside, there was a fire blazing in the grate. There were cushy armchairs by the fire and couches and small tables all around the room. Sun was shining in through the windows making the room look warm and inviting.

The boys had forgotten how to get to the great hall and ended up spending nearly an hour running around the castle. Twice they walked in on older students snogging in abandoned classrooms. They figured that since the Gryffindor common room was in a tower, and since the great hall was on the level ground, if they just kept taking stairs that went down, they would find themselves on the right floor. But this was made difficult because not only did the many staircases change directions often, but they also often decided to lead upward instead of down, this meant that the boys had to take the same staircase three times. By the time they looked up, they realized that they had gone too far. The dungeons were not where they'd find a nice hot breakfast.

James was getting angry and all of their stomachs were. " _Crying with hunger._ " as Sirius put it. Remus looked at his watch to find that they had six minutes till they had to go to class, but the issue was, not only did they not make it to the great hall to eat, but they also missed getting their time tables that Professor McGonagall was supposed to hand out during breakfast, so they didn't know what class they had.

"If we had just asked directions." said a grumpy Remus as they dashed, now, upstairs.

"I didn't need directions." James replied.

"Obviously you did or we'd be well fed and sitting in class with a time table in our bags." said Remus.

"Will you two stop fighting." Sirius interjected. "Your voices are making my head hurt."

They crashed into a rather fat, balding man with a walrus mustache, coming down the stone steps into the dungeons.

"Oh!" said the man in surprise as Sirius fell backward onto the floor. "I was just heading to teach potions, what are you three doing?"

"We were lost!" rushed Remus. "We don't know which class we're supposed to be at."

"Well I saw a good few first years heading toward the charms class." said the man.

"Where is that?"

"Your charms class will be in room 99 in the South tower." he replied.

"Okay." said Remus pausing. ". . . Where is that?"

The man chuckled and pulled from his pocket, a roll of parchment. "Here." he said. "I always keep a couple maps on me, for situations like this one, also, between you and I, I sometimes need one." he handed Remus the map with a wink and walked on. Remus unrolled it, and dashed forward.

It wasn't long until they were sprinting down the corridor toward room 99.

They paused before entering to catch their breath.

"We're three minutes late." gasped Remus. And Sirius peaked through the key hole. "They've started." he said. "Oh! Oh wait! The Professor just toppled off his chair. Go, go, go!" and the boys quietly rushed into the room to take empty seats near the back. A few students turned to see them sneak in and the red head girl, Evans, was staring at them disapproving. James caught her eye and winked, she rolled her eyes and turned back around.

The Professor clambered back up onto his chair red faced. He was a tiny man not four feet tall and had to stand on a stack of books to see over his desk.

"Sorry class, sorry." he was saying. "I was just looking for. . . where is it? Aw!" and he pulled a scroll from under a stack of books. "Have to make sure you are all here."

James, Sirius, and Remus looked at each other and Sirius pretended to wipe sweat from his brow.

"Alright, Gryffindors first, when you hear your name, please raise your hand." said the Professor and he began to read off the long list,

"Atkins, Terra,

Black, Sirius,

Dalbert, Ezekiel,

Evens, Lily.

Illins, Jack,

Joel, Paxton,

Kinley, Skipper,

Lumeir, Quazzy,

Lupin, Remus,

Mac, Uphraties,

McClan, Kennedy,

Nown, Benjamin,

Ozwald, Juliet,

Paldmorr, Pilgrim,

Pettigew, Peter,

Potter, James,

Quinn, Haily,

Quin, Admon,

Raxxon, Chrysanthemum,

Sapple, Chandler,

Ulivia, Bolivia,

Xylem, Obadiah,

Young, Malachi

Vizzini, Zachary."

"Good, now the Ravenclaws." and he read all of their names out too.

"I must say, good number this year, quite a few more students than normal. Now as I was saying before the call, I am Professor Flitwick."

He talked for a short time about how important charms is, about what it is used for, where the art originated, and what they will be learning over the year. He gave each of the students a pencil with the task of turning it blue. At the end of the class, only Remus, Evans, Obadiah, and a few Ravenclaws had been able to successfully do the spell. James, Sirius and a hand full of other students had managed to make patches, spots, or give the pencil a blue tint.

James kept his half blue pencil behind his ear and swore to never throw it away, this was the first bit of magic he had ever done at Hogwarts.

"Hey!" called James catching up to the Peter boy from their dormitory.

"Can we look at your time table?" he asked.

The boy looked as if this was an honor and scrambled to get it. "Of course!" he said in a voice that was slightly higher than a boy his age should have.

"Okay." said James looking at it. "We have Herbology, lunch, transfiguration, and Defense Against the Dark Arts. We can remember that."

With the map in their hands, finding their way out of the castle and to greenhouse one, was easy. Peter followed closely behind them with his time table clutched in his hands as if hoping that they would need it again.

Herbology was an interesting affair. They had to string Epthan pods. It was kind of like when you string a honey suckle, except the string was an inch in diameter and would writhe around whenever you managed to pluck it from the weed. Professor Sprout, a squat, plump, and earthy witch, had apparently forgotten to tell the class that the Ethpan Pod juice was a nasty yellowish, fowl smelling liquid that would splatter on you when you strung it. And the worst of it was, you had to reach inside of the pod and collect the liquid in a vile. This was made difficult because the plant would try to eat your arm while it was in its mouth. Of course the plant had no teeth so it would just suck on your arm making it all sticky, and it tickled.

James had become so uncomfortable with the feeling of the plant on his arm that he accidentally jerked his arm while collecting the juice which poked a hole through its delicate leafy side and caused the liquid to spill out onto the table.

"Careful Potter, careful!" cried Professor Sprout, sliding a bowl across the table to catch the leaking juice.

"Professor?" asked James. "If the juice will just spill out by punching a hole in the side, why don't we all do that? Wouldn't it make this all faster?"

A couple students were looking as if this was a very reasonable suggestion.

Professor Sprout opened her mouth to answer, but stopped when she saw Evans' hand fly into the air.

"Yes miss. Evans?"

"The Ethpan pod reproduces its juice and regrows its string so that it can be used again. So I would be correct in thinking that to stab a hole in the side of the plant would be quite foolish because it will not be able to produce correctly and will die." she finished.

"Quite right." said Sprout. "Five points to Gryffindor."

James tapped his head then gave her a thumbs up. Lily looked back down at her Ethpan Pod and began working.

"Now," said Professor Sprout. "can any of you tell me what the juice of the Ethpan Pod is used for?"

"Evans can." said James.

Professor Sprout looked at her and Lily looked a bit awkward.

"No, I can't." she said quietly then scowled at James who shrugged. He didn't know why, but he found it to be quite enjoyable to pick on her. She was of course very pretty, and when he talked to her, she would look at him which oddly gave him a weird feeling in his chest, and the more he would do this, the more time he had to figure out what that feeling was?

"The juice is used for headaches." said the Professor. "Or to help someone who has had a concussion heal faster. Many different types of muggle medicines have this ingredient in them, though the muggles have been led to believe that it comes from the base of volcanoes in Iceland."

They were all given a syrup to clean the sticky area that the plant had been sucking off because according to Professor Sprout, if the sap is left on the skin for over an hour, your skin will turn green. The syrup was also used to clean the yellowish liquid off of their robes. But the syrup had such a strong scent of female perfume that Sirius refused to wear it. He poked fun at James and Remus the whole way back up to the castle for smelling like girls, until they got to the great hall where James and Remus were laughing at Sirius because his entire arm, all the way down to his fingers was turning green.

They had pasta for lunch and sat beside Ezekiel Dalbert.

"Whoa man, what happened to your arm." Ezzy asked when Sirius reached for the cheese powder. "Looking a bit like Godzilla under there."

"Who's Godzilla?" Sirius asked.

"Who's Godz- you know, they giant lizard from that movie. . ." Ezzy replied looking startled.

They guys shook their heads.

"He's like, half dinosaur, half lizard, he came out of the water and destroyed a city. . ."

"Nope. . ." said Remus.

"You've never seen that movie?"

"I don't even know what a movie is." said Sirius.

Ezzy grabbed his heart and inhaled sharply.

"What kind of people are you?" he asked. "I knew many wizards weren't familiar with muggle culture but I never imagined."

"Are you muggle born?" asked James.

"No, I'm a halfblood, my dad's a wizard, mom's a muggle. But my dad quit magic to move to Spain with my mom, and we all live as muggles. . . with a television."

"Okay, I have never heard of a wizard giving up magic to be a muggle before." said James.

"Well you have now. It's not bad. But my dad sometimes takes his wand out and entertains us with a few tricks when nobody else is around. He doesn't do it too often because magic interferes with technology. I expect that's why Hogwarts doesn't use it. See, my mom's family is Jewish and we all live together. If they found out that my dad and I were wizards, they'd shun us out with holy water or something. It's been a nightmare trying to make excuses to all the little magic things I've been doing over the years. My parents were hesitant about letting me come to Hogwarts when I got my letter. But I convinced them and here I am. The rest of my family thinks that I'm studying in America to become a doctor."

"Wow. . ." said Sirius staring at him. "So how are you going to do the holiday work you're given?"

"There's this old shed in the woods, I'll have to set up shop there." Ezzy replied.

They were almost late for Transfiguration but made it in time. The teacher was Professor McGonagall, the woman who had done the sorting. She was indeed stern and had told the class right from the start that she was not afraid of taking points away, not even from her own house.

This subject was very difficult and complex. After taking two pages worth of notes, they were finally all giving a piece of straw with the task of turning it into a needle.

Students were half way laying on their desks lazily flicking their wands about and mumbling an incantation to the straw that wasn't doing anything. James had his head propped up on his elbow and was halfheartedly trying to make the straw change, when he saw something that made him sit up right. Gryffindor's were doing transfiguration with the Slytherins and Evans was sitting beside Snivellus, the greasy haired boy from the train, a few rows up from him. Lily Evans was bending low over her desk and Snivellus genitally moved her hair from her face. James found himself becoming angry and he wasn't sure why.

"Sev! Your straw is turning silver!" she cried delightedly.

James focused all of his attention on his piece of straw and tried with all his might saying the incantation repeatedly, again and again tried and tried and tried with a mad glint in his eye until,

"I DID IT!" he shouted standing up with a perfect silver needle in his hand.

Every head turned to him and Professor McGonagall walked over to his desk to examine it.

"Hmm, good job Mr. Potter." she said giving it back to him. "In all this time of teaching I have never seen a student do it that quickly. Fifteen points to Gryffindor." and she smiled at him.

James smirked pompously at Snivellus. Who glared back and began swatting at his silver straw.

Not a minute later the boy stood up and said. "Professor!"

Professor McGonagall walked to his desk and looked at the silver needle that he was holding up for her to see. "Excellent work Mr. Snape. Fifteen points to Slytherin."

Evans hugged Snape and said, "Good job, Sev!"

Snivellus stuck his tongue out at James over Lily's shoulder.

James scowled more deeply.

The students left the class a little while later and James swung his bag over his shoulder madly and hit Sirius in the stomach.

"What's got you in such a foul mood?" he asked.

"I'm not upset." James replied unconvincingly.

"You're a terrible liar." said Remus. "You don't have to tell us, but you can at least let us help."

James stopped outside the transfiguration classroom with an idea. He glanced back in the doorway, then swung back around with the look of malice on his face.

"Yeah, I know how you can help. Just wait there." and he leaned against the wall beside the door, pretending to be looking casually at his nails. A moment later Snivellus emerged with Lily. James stuck his foot out and this time managed to trip him. Snape fell flat on his stomach while James and Sirius laughed and began to walk away.

"Potter you- Sev!" Lily started.

James felt something hard hit him in the back of the head. Throbbing, he turned and found that apparently Snape had thrown a potions book at him.

"Oi!" shouted Sirius grabbing the book and throwing in back at Snivellus who had gotten to his feet, hitting him in the face.

"Guys this is too-hmph!" Remus had walked forward but was hit in the stomach by Snape's book bag which he had swung at him.

"Hey!" James and Sirius shouted, glaring from Remus, crumpled on the floor couching, to Snape to looked triumphant for hitting Remus who hadn't even done anything. The two boys attacked Snivellus like dogs.

"Will you boys stop it!" shouted Lily trying and failing to pull them apart. "Get off him!"

"What is Going on here?!" said a familiar and unpleasant voice. The brawl froze where it was, Snape holding Sirius' hair, James gripping Snape's tie, Sirius with an arm around Snape's neck, and Lily, clinging to James' back and a foot on Sirius' chest, Remus on the ground holding his stomach and the entire rest of the class gathered around, some with their fists in the air.

McGonagall's mouth became the thinnest of thin lines and her eyes were wide and horrified.

"Get off!" she shouted. "Get off at once! I've never! You!" she pointed at a random Gryffindor in the crowd. "Explain."

Obadiah Xylem looked startled. "Honestly Professor," he said. "I saw the whole thing and still have no idea what happened. Potter and that black haired Slytherin started it though, I think."

"Snape! Potter!" McGonagall cried. "You have both lost the fifteen points you had originally earned. Evens! Black! You have lost twenty points for Gryffindor. And you all receive detention!"

Lily opened her mouth pointing at James.

"I don't want to hear it Evans."

"But Professor! Evans didn't-"

"Not another word Potter!" she interrupted.

Sirius and Snape both sat up trying to argue.

"What will it take to make you four understand I don't want to hear it!" she called then looked down at Remus.

"Did he have anything to do with it?" she asked.

James went to answer but McGonagall put her finger up then pointed at Obadiah.

"No Professor." he said. "He just got hit."

"Are you alright Lupin?" she asked.

Remus looked up and tried to answer but started to cough when he inhaled.

"You should go to the hospital wing." she said.

"No. I'm fine-" But his pale face didn't convince her.

"Xylem, take Mr. Lupin to the hospital wing. The rest of you off to class now!"

The crowd dispersed, Gryffindor and Slytherin took to the opposite direction. Which was good because Snape, Sirius, and James were staring at each other with fire in their eyes.

Lily strode angrily past James holding her books tight to her chest, her knuckles white.

"Hey Evans!" James called hurrying up to her.

"James, I would just leave this one-" Sirius called after him but James had already caught up to her.

"I don't know what's the matter with you." she said not looking at him. "You just pick on him for no good reason, what has he done to you?"

"Would the fact that he threw a book at my head suffice." he replied.

"No."

"Of course it wouldn't." he said.

"You made the first move Potter. This whole thing was your fault." James opened his mouth to argue, but she continued. "Sure, Severus could have retaliated more maturely, but you had no right to trip him in the first place."

"Look, if I could go back I would have-"

"Ran faster after tripping him?" she interrupted. He didn't deny it, Lily rolled her eyes and with an, "Augh, boys." she walked quicker ahead.

James was left standing there. "Ah, who needs her approval." said Sirius grabbing James' arm and steering him onward. "I still think you're right for tripping him. The strong man throws the first punch James." and he tapped James on the back.

They made it into their Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom and took seats in the very front. Lily was sitting on the opposite side of the room. The Professor was sitting on top of his desk and waiting for the entire class to have their seats before they began. There was a small, ' _ding'_ whenever someone sat down. Nobody came in for a little while but there was this constant, ' _ding, ding, ding, ding_ ' noise persisting. The Professor frowned looking around the room. He strode to the door and saw no one coming. Every head in the room was spinning around to see what the noise was until the Professor's eyes fixed on Peter who was bobbing up and down buoyantly in his chair. The Professor grabbed Peter's shoulder and the dinging stopped, there was a couple giggles from around the room as Peter's face turned red. The man then strode back over to his desk silently and James and Sirius turned back to the front smiling.

"We're missing two." said the Professor.

James raised his hand.

"It's Remus Lupin sir." he said. "He's been sent to the hospital wing, and Obadiah what's his face escorted him."

"The hospital wing? On the first day, my. He's alright though? Nothing serious?"

"He'll survive Professor." said James.

"Alright well, my name is Professor Sunny." he said. "And I am very pleased to be your Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher."

Professor Sunny was a rather thin, middle aged wizard who was balding. The class rather liked him, he seemed very enthusiastic about his subject and would leap across the room demonstrating different tactics for different situations. They went through the first chapter in their books, and discussed its points, then they all took their wands out to practice the proper way to say the spell, then the proper way to move the wand.

"Now can anyone tell me why I'm teaching you the blocking spell first?" he asked.

Lily raised her hand. "Because the only thing we need to do with magic outside of class is block an unfriendly curse from someone stupid enough to use it on you. Also, so that we're not the stupid people to use unfriendly curses on others." she looked at James.

"Not my first choice of words but still, correct. Ten points to Gryffindor."

By the end of class, Lily had managed to earn back the twenty points that her and Sirius had lost, and an additional ten. James, Sirius, and Berry Bymond were the only ones to perfectly produce the spells that they were given.

They left the class feeling pleased with themselves. Both James, Sirius, and Berry had earned fifteen points for Gryffindor.

"It's a shame that Remus had to miss the first D. A. D. A class." said Sirius. "We're checking on him right?"

"We wouldn't be heading toward the fourth floor if we weren't."

The door the hospital wing wasn't locked, so they pushed it open. Remus was laying on one of the white beds reading a book.

"Remus." said Sirius plopping himself on the bottom of the bed. "What's got you in here so long?"

"Fractured rib." said Remus causally.

"A what?" James said in disbelief.

"Yeah, Madam Pomfrey was able to mend it fine but she suggests I stay here until my rib strengthens again."

"B-But it was just a bag! Just a school bag!" sputtered Sirius.

"Yeah, a school back full of heavy books. I must give it to Snape, he's got quite an arm."

"I'm gonna kill him for you Remus." said James furiously. "I'm gonna break one of his ribs you just wait here!"

"James, No!" called Remus flinging himself forward to grab James' arm. "Augh!" he leaned back holding his chest. "Don't make me do that again it still hurts. And don't be stupid, you being sent home for violence won't be doing me any favors."

"He almost broke your bone and you weren't even a part of it!" James half shouted.

"Look," said Remus sticking his feet back under the covers. "I'm not happy, in fact I'm furious. But you can't just go punch him in the nose."

"Why not? The strong man throws the first punch." James said.

"No." Remus replied Seriously. "The weak man throws the first punch because he can't control his temper. The strong man turns the other cheek. . . until he sees a good opportunity to put Ethpan pod juice into his enemy's stew."

James laughed. "I prefer hitting." said Sirius. "Strong man or no."

"Don' worry." said Remus. "We'll find the perfect opportunity to poison Snape."

"Snivellus." corrected James.

"Besides, if you broke one of Snivellus' ribs, I don't think that would bode well with Evans."

"Why do you think I would care about what Evans thinks?" asked James defensively, his face going red.

"Don't be daft James. It's only been a day and it's so obvious that you like her." Replied Remus.

"It's not!" cried James.

"So you admit it!?" laughed Remus.

"No! No I never said that I liked her! She's arrogant, a know-it-all and she hates me!"

"Oh my God! You have a crush on her!"

"I don't!"

"He so does!" joined Sirius.

"Shut up Sirius, I thought you were on my side!" James fought.

"Ah this is great!"

"You can stop shaking your head James, I already told you that you were a horrible liar."

"I'm not lying!"

"Your face is scarlet!" laughed Sirius.

…. . .

"Okay. . . I'm not saying I do. . . but there's a small-" mumbled James.

Remus roared with laughter and Sirius hit James with Remus' pillow knocking him off the end of the bed. Sirius bent over the bed and said,

"You couldn't have given it one week? Not a bad choice mate, though I'm still voting for you and the trolley lady."

James hit Sirius in the face with the pillow, and the rest of the day was spent in the hospital wing laughing and chatting.


	6. An Accident

That night James had a dream that he was in the great hall staring at the thousands of candles suspended in midair, illuminating the area. Suddenly the candles started to float in a ring above him. Then they sprouted wings and transformed into a type of waxy birds, darting strait toward James, the flame as their beaks. He tried to jump out of the way, to run, but his feet were stuck to the floor; he couldn't move them, as if gravity was heavily holding them to the stone ground.

James awoke with a start, or at least he thought he did, but his feet still couldn't move. He looked down to see Sirius curled up in a ball on his legs. Perplexed, James tried to nudge him off, but Sirius just stretched and resumed position.

"Sirius." James groaned. "Get off."

But he slept on. Finally, James had to throw his pillow at him, being too tired to sit up at the moment anyway. Sirius was hit in the face and woke blurry eyes and dazed.

"What are you trying to do?" asked Sirius sleepily and with his hair in his eyes, throwing the pillow back.

"Why are you on my feet?" asked James. Sirius looked down at what he was laying on.

"Oops, sorry mate." and he sitting up.

"Your bed is right there." said James pointing at a bed across from his own.

"Oh, see, by the time I got out of the bathroom, you all had the lights out and I couldn't find my bed. Well I thought I had but ended up laying on something squashy, I think it was a face, I hope it was Remus, it would've been awkward otherwise. Anyway, I found your glasses on the floor, well actually I stepped on them, they might have broken, sorry. I realized that this was your bed and just climbed on."

"That was a long story." said Remus sitting up from bed. "And that face wasn't mine."

About half an hour later the boys were dressed showered, and heading down the boy's staircase. The Gryffindor common room was very warm looking, though the weather was hot and sunny outside, there was a fire blazing in the grate. There were cushy armchairs by the fire and couches and small tables all around the room. Sun was shining in through the windows making the room look warm and inviting.

The boys had forgotten how to get to the great hall and ended up spending nearly an hour running around the castle. Twice they walked in on older students snogging in abandoned classrooms. They figured that since the Gryffindor common room was in a tower, and since the great hall was on the level ground, if they just kept taking stairs that went down, they would find themselves on the right floor. But this was made difficult because not only did the many staircases change directions often, but they also often decided to lead upward instead of down, this meant that the boys had to take the same staircase three times. By the time they looked up, they realized that they had gone too far. The dungeons were not where they'd find a nice hot breakfast.

James was getting angry and all of their stomachs were. " _Crying with hunger._ " as Sirius put it. Remus looked at his watch to find that they had six minutes till they had to go to class, but the issue was, not only did they not make it to the great hall to eat, but they also missed getting their time tables that Professor McGonagall was supposed to hand out during breakfast, so they didn't know what class they had.

"If we had just asked directions." said a grumpy Remus as they dashed, now, upstairs.

"I didn't need directions." James replied.

"Obviously you did or we'd be well fed and sitting in class with a time table in our bags." said Remus.

"Will you two stop fighting." Sirius interjected. "Your voices are making my head hurt."

They crashed into a rather fat, balding man with a walrus mustache, coming down the stone steps into the dungeons.

"Oh!" said the man in surprise as Sirius fell backward onto the floor. "I was just heading to teach potions, what are you three doing?"

"We were lost!" rushed Remus. "We don't know which class we're supposed to be at."

"Well I saw a good few first years heading toward the charms class." said the man.

"Where is that?"

"Your charms class will be in room 99 in the South tower." he replied.

"Okay." said Remus pausing. ". . . Where is that?"

The man chuckled and pulled from his pocket, a roll of parchment. "Here." he said. "I always keep a couple maps on me, for situations like this one, also, between you and I, I sometimes need one." he handed Remus the map with a wink and walked on. Remus unrolled it, and dashed forward.

It wasn't long until they were sprinting down the corridor toward room 99.

They paused before entering to catch their breath.

"We're three minutes late." gasped Remus. And Sirius peaked through the key hole. "They've started." he said. "Oh! Oh wait! The Professor just toppled off his chair. Go, go, go!" and the boys quietly rushed into the room to take empty seats near the back. A few students turned to see them sneak in and the red head girl, Evans, was staring at them disapproving. James caught her eye and winked, she rolled her eyes and turned back around.

The Professor clambered back up onto his chair red faced. He was a tiny man not four feet tall and had to stand on a stack of books to see over his desk.

"Sorry class, sorry." he was saying. "I was just looking for. . . where is it? Aw!" and he pulled a scroll from under a stack of books. "Have to make sure you are all here."

James, Sirius, and Remus looked at each other and Sirius pretended to wipe sweat from his brow.

"Alright, Gryffindors first, when you hear your name, please raise your hand." said the Professor and he began to read off the long list,

"Atkins, Terra,

Black, Sirius,

Dalbert, Ezekiel,

Evens, Lily.

Illins, Jack,

Joel, Paxton,

Kinley, Skipper,

Lumeir, Quazzy,

Lupin, Remus,

Mac, Uphraties,

McClan, Kennedy,

Nown, Benjamin,

Ozwald, Juliet,

Paldmorr, Pilgrim,

Pettigew, Peter,

Potter, James,

Quinn, Haily,

Quin, Admon,

Raxxon, Chrysanthemum,

Sapple, Chandler,

Ulivia, Bolivia,

Xylem, Obadiah,

Young, Malachi

Vizzini, Zachary."

"Good, now the Ravenclaws." and he read all of their names out too.

"I must say, good number this year, quite a few more students than normal. Now as I was saying before the call, I am Professor Flitwick."

He talked for a short time about how important charms is, about what it is used for, where the art originated, and what they will be learning over the year. He gave each of the students a pencil with the task of turning it blue. At the end of the class, only Remus, Evans, Obadiah, and a few Ravenclaws had been able to successfully do the spell. James, Sirius and a hand full of other students had managed to make patches, spots, or give the pencil a blue tint.

James kept his half blue pencil behind his ear and swore to never throw it away, this was the first bit of magic he had ever done at Hogwarts.

"Hey!" called James catching up to the Peter boy from their dormitory.

"Can we look at your time table?" he asked.

The boy looked as if this was an honor and scrambled to get it. "Of course!" he said in a voice that was slightly higher than a boy his age should have.

"Okay." said James looking at it. "We have Herbology, lunch, transfiguration, and Defense Against the Dark Arts. We can remember that."

With the map in their hands, finding their way out of the castle and to greenhouse one, was easy. Peter followed closely behind them with his time table clutched in his hands as if hoping that they would need it again.

Herbology was an interesting affair. They had to string Epthan pods. It was kind of like when you string a honey suckle, except the string was an inch in diameter and would writhe around whenever you managed to pluck it from the weed. Professor Sprout, a squat, plump, and earthy witch, had apparently forgotten to tell the class that the Ethpan Pod juice was a nasty yellowish, fowl smelling liquid that would splatter on you when you strung it. And the worst of it was, you had to reach inside of the pod and collect the liquid in a vile. This was made difficult because the plant would try to eat your arm while it was in its mouth. Of course the plant had no teeth so it would just suck on your arm making it all sticky, and it tickled.

James had become so uncomfortable with the feeling of the plant on his arm that he accidentally jerked his arm while collecting the juice which poked a hole through its delicate leafy side and caused the liquid to spill out onto the table.

"Careful Potter, careful!" cried Professor Sprout, sliding a bowl across the table to catch the leaking juice.

"Professor?" asked James. "If the juice will just spill out by punching a hole in the side, why don't we all do that? Wouldn't it make this all faster?"

A couple students were looking as if this was a very reasonable suggestion.

Professor Sprout opened her mouth to answer, but stopped when she saw Evans' hand fly into the air.

"Yes miss. Evans?"

"The Ethpan pod reproduces its juice and regrows its string so that it can be used again. So I would be correct in thinking that to stab a hole in the side of the plant would be quite foolish because it will not be able to produce correctly and will die." she finished.

"Quite right." said Sprout. "Five points to Gryffindor."

James tapped his head then gave her a thumbs up. Lily looked back down at her Ethpan Pod and began working.

"Now," said Professor Sprout. "can any of you tell me what the juice of the Ethpan Pod is used for?"

"Evans can." said James.

Professor Sprout looked at her and Lily looked a bit awkward.

"No, I can't." she said quietly then scowled at James who shrugged. He didn't know why, but he found it to be quite enjoyable to pick on her. She was of course very pretty, and when he talked to her, she would look at him which oddly gave him a weird feeling in his chest, and the more he would do this, the more time he had to figure out what that feeling was?

"The juice is used for headaches." said the Professor. "Or to help someone who has had a concussion heal faster. Many different types of muggle medicines have this ingredient in them, though the muggles have been led to believe that it comes from the base of volcanoes in Iceland."

They were all given a syrup to clean the sticky area that the plant had been sucking off because according to Professor Sprout, if the sap is left on the skin for over an hour, your skin will turn green. The syrup was also used to clean the yellowish liquid off of their robes. But the syrup had such a strong scent of female perfume that Sirius refused to wear it. He poked fun at James and Remus the whole way back up to the castle for smelling like girls, until they got to the great hall where James and Remus were laughing at Sirius because his entire arm, all the way down to his fingers was turning green.

They had pasta for lunch and sat beside Ezekiel Dalbert.

"Whoa man, what happened to your arm." Ezzy asked when Sirius reached for the cheese powder. "Looking a bit like Godzilla under there."

"Who's Godzilla?" Sirius asked.

"Who's Godz- you know, they giant lizard from that movie. . ." Ezzy replied looking startled.

They guys shook their heads.

"He's like, half dinosaur, half lizard, he came out of the water and destroyed a city. . ."

"Nope. . ." said Remus.

"You've never seen that movie?"

"I don't even know what a movie is." said Sirius.

Ezzy grabbed his heart and inhaled sharply.

"What kind of people are you?" he asked. "I knew many wizards weren't familiar with muggle culture but I never imagined."

"Are you muggle born?" asked James.

"No, I'm a halfblood, my dad's a wizard, mom's a muggle. But my dad quit magic to move to Spain with my mom, and we all live as muggles. . . with a television."

"Okay, I have never heard of a wizard giving up magic to be a muggle before." said James.

"Well you have now. It's not bad. But my dad sometimes takes his wand out and entertains us with a few tricks when nobody else is around. He doesn't do it too often because magic interferes with technology. I expect that's why Hogwarts doesn't use it. See, my mom's family is Jewish and we all live together. If they found out that my dad and I were wizards, they'd shun us out with holy water or something. It's been a nightmare trying to make excuses to all the little magic things I've been doing over the years. My parents were hesitant about letting me come to Hogwarts when I got my letter. But I convinced them and here I am. The rest of my family thinks that I'm studying in America to become a doctor."

"Wow. . ." said Sirius staring at him. "So how are you going to do the holiday work you're given?"

"There's this old shed in the woods, I'll have to set up shop there." Ezzy replied.

They were almost late for Transfiguration but made it in time. The teacher was Professor McGonagall, the woman who had done the sorting. She was indeed stern and had told the class right from the start that she was not afraid of taking points away, not even from her own house.

This subject was very difficult and complex. After taking two pages worth of notes, they were finally all giving a piece of straw with the task of turning it into a needle.

Students were half way laying on their desks lazily flicking their wands about and mumbling an incantation to the straw that wasn't doing anything. James had his head propped up on his elbow and was halfheartedly trying to make the straw change, when he saw something that made him sit up right. Gryffindor's were doing transfiguration with the Slytherins and Evans was sitting beside Snivellus, the greasy haired boy from the train, a few rows up from him. Lily Evans was bending low over her desk and Snivellus genitally moved her hair from her face. James found himself becoming angry and he wasn't sure why.

"Sev! Your straw is turning silver!" she cried delightedly.

James focused all of his attention on his piece of straw and tried with all his might saying the incantation repeatedly, again and again tried and tried and tried with a mad glint in his eye until,

"I DID IT!" he shouted standing up with a perfect silver needle in his hand.

Every head turned to him and Professor McGonagall walked over to his desk to examine it.

"Hmm, good job Mr. Potter." she said giving it back to him. "In all this time of teaching I have never seen a student do it that quickly. Fifteen points to Gryffindor." and she smiled at him.

James smirked pompously at Snivellus. Who glared back and began swatting at his silver straw.

Not a minute later the boy stood up and said. "Professor!"

Professor McGonagall walked to his desk and looked at the silver needle that he was holding up for her to see. "Excellent work Mr. Snape. Fifteen points to Slytherin."

Evans hugged Snape and said, "Good job, Sev!"

Snivellus stuck his tongue out at James over Lily's shoulder.

James scowled more deeply.

The students left the class a little while later and James swung his bag over his shoulder madly and hit Sirius in the stomach.

"What's got you in such a foul mood?" he asked.

"I'm not upset." James replied unconvincingly.

"You're a terrible liar." said Remus. "You don't have to tell us, but you can at least let us help."

James stopped outside the transfiguration classroom with an idea. He glanced back in the doorway, then swung back around with the look of malice on his face.

"Yeah, I know how you can help. Just wait there." and he leaned against the wall beside the door, pretending to be looking casually at his nails. A moment later Snivellus emerged with Lily. James stuck his foot out and this time managed to trip him. Snape fell flat on his stomach while James and Sirius laughed and began to walk away.

"Potter you- Sev!" Lily started.

James felt something hard hit him in the back of the head. Throbbing, he turned and found that apparently Snape had thrown a potions book at him.

"Oi!" shouted Sirius grabbing the book and throwing in back at Snivellus who had gotten to his feet, hitting him in the face.

"Guys this is too-hmph!" Remus had walked forward but was hit in the stomach by Snape's book bag which he had swung at him.

"Hey!" James and Sirius shouted, glaring from Remus, crumpled on the floor couching, to Snape to looked triumphant for hitting Remus who hadn't even done anything. The two boys attacked Snivellus like dogs.

"Will you boys stop it!" shouted Lily trying and failing to pull them apart. "Get off him!"

"What is Going on here?!" said a familiar and unpleasant voice. The brawl froze where it was, Snape holding Sirius' hair, James gripping Snape's tie, Sirius with an arm around Snape's neck, and Lily, clinging to James' back and a foot on Sirius' chest, Remus on the ground holding his stomach and the entire rest of the class gathered around, some with their fists in the air.

McGonagall's mouth became the thinnest of thin lines and her eyes were wide and horrified.

"Get off!" she shouted. "Get off at once! I've never! You!" she pointed at a random Gryffindor in the crowd. "Explain."

Obadiah Xylem looked startled. "Honestly Professor," he said. "I saw the whole thing and still have no idea what happened. Potter and that black haired Slytherin started it though, I think."

"Snape! Potter!" McGonagall cried. "You have both lost the fifteen points you had originally earned. Evens! Black! You have lost twenty points for Gryffindor. And you all receive detention!"

Lily opened her mouth pointing at James.

"I don't want to hear it Evans."

"But Professor! Evans didn't-"

"Not another word Potter!" she interrupted.

Sirius and Snape both sat up trying to argue.

"What will it take to make you four understand I don't want to hear it!" she called then looked down at Remus.

"Did he have anything to do with it?" she asked.

James went to answer but McGonagall put her finger up then pointed at Obadiah.

"No Professor." he said. "He just got hit."

"Are you alright Lupin?" she asked.

Remus looked up and tried to answer but started to cough when he inhaled.

"You should go to the hospital wing." she said.

"No. I'm fine-" But his pale face didn't convince her.

"Xylem, take Mr. Lupin to the hospital wing. The rest of you off to class now!"

The crowd dispersed, Gryffindor and Slytherin took to the opposite direction. Which was good because Snape, Sirius, and James were staring at each other with fire in their eyes.

Lily strode angrily past James holding her books tight to her chest, her knuckles white.

"Hey Evans!" James called hurrying up to her.

"James, I would just leave this one-" Sirius called after him but James had already caught up to her.

"I don't know what's the matter with you." she said not looking at him. "You just pick on him for no good reason, what has he done to you?"

"Would the fact that he threw a book at my head suffice." he replied.

"No."

"Of course it wouldn't." he said.

"You made the first move Potter. This whole thing was your fault." James opened his mouth to argue, but she continued. "Sure, Severus could have retaliated more maturely, but you had no right to trip him in the first place."

"Look, if I could go back I would have-"

"Ran faster after tripping him?" she interrupted. He didn't deny it, Lily rolled her eyes and with an, "Augh, boys." she walked quicker ahead.

James was left standing there. "Ah, who needs her approval." said Sirius grabbing James' arm and steering him onward. "I still think you're right for tripping him. The strong man throws the first punch James." and he tapped James on the back.

They made it into their Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom and took seats in the very front. Lily was sitting on the opposite side of the room. The Professor was sitting on top of his desk and waiting for the entire class to have their seats before they began. There was a small, ' _ding'_ whenever someone sat down. Nobody came in for a little while but there was this constant, ' _ding, ding, ding, ding_ ' noise persisting. The Professor frowned looking around the room. He strode to the door and saw no one coming. Every head in the room was spinning around to see what the noise was until the Professor's eyes fixed on Peter who was bobbing up and down buoyantly in his chair. The Professor grabbed Peter's shoulder and the dinging stopped, there was a couple giggles from around the room as Peter's face turned red. The man then strode back over to his desk silently and James and Sirius turned back to the front smiling.

"We're missing two." said the Professor.

James raised his hand.

"It's Remus Lupin sir." he said. "He's been sent to the hospital wing, and Obadiah what's his face escorted him."

"The hospital wing? On the first day, my. He's alright though? Nothing serious?"

"He'll survive Professor." said James.

"Alright well, my name is Professor Sunny." he said. "And I am very pleased to be your Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher."

Professor Sunny was a rather thin, middle aged wizard who was balding. The class rather liked him, he seemed very enthusiastic about his subject and would leap across the room demonstrating different tactics for different situations. They went through the first chapter in their books, and discussed its points, then they all took their wands out to practice the proper way to say the spell, then the proper way to move the wand.

"Now can anyone tell me why I'm teaching you the blocking spell first?" he asked.

Lily raised her hand. "Because the only thing we need to do with magic outside of class is block an unfriendly curse from someone stupid enough to use it on you. Also, so that we're not the stupid people to use unfriendly curses on others." she looked at James.

"Not my first choice of words but still, correct. Ten points to Gryffindor."

By the end of class, Lily had managed to earn back the twenty points that her and Sirius had lost, and an additional ten. James, Sirius, and Berry Bymond were the only ones to perfectly produce the spells that they were given.

They left the class feeling pleased with themselves. Both James, Sirius, and Berry had earned fifteen points for Gryffindor.

"It's a shame that Remus had to miss the first D. A. D. A class." said Sirius. "We're checking on him right?"

"We wouldn't be heading toward the fourth floor if we weren't."

The door the hospital wing wasn't locked, so they pushed it open. Remus was laying on one of the white beds reading a book.

"Remus." said Sirius plopping himself on the bottom of the bed. "What's got you in here so long?"

"Fractured rib." said Remus causally.

"A what?" James said in disbelief.

"Yeah, Madam Pomfrey was able to mend it fine but she suggests I stay here until my rib strengthens again."

"B-But it was just a bag! Just a school bag!" sputtered Sirius.

"Yeah, a school back full of heavy books. I must give it to Snape, he's got quite an arm."

"I'm gonna kill him for you Remus." said James furiously. "I'm gonna break one of his ribs you just wait here!"

"James, No!" called Remus flinging himself forward to grab James' arm. "Augh!" he leaned back holding his chest. "Don't make me do that again it still hurts. And don't be stupid, you being sent home for violence won't be doing me any favors."

"He almost broke your bone and you weren't even a part of it!" James half shouted.

"Look," said Remus sticking his feet back under the covers. "I'm not happy, in fact I'm furious. But you can't just go punch him in the nose."

"Why not? The strong man throws the first punch." James said.

"No." Remus replied Seriously. "The weak man throws the first punch because he can't control his temper. The strong man turns the other cheek. . . until he sees a good opportunity to put Ethpan pod juice into his enemy's stew."

James laughed. "I prefer hitting." said Sirius. "Strong man or no."

"Don' worry." said Remus. "We'll find the perfect opportunity to poison Snape."

"Snivellus." corrected James.

"Besides, if you broke one of Snivellus' ribs, I don't think that would bode well with Evans."

"Why do you think I would care about what Evans thinks?" asked James defensively, his face going red.

"Don't be daft James. It's only been a day and it's so obvious that you like her." Replied Remus.

"It's not!" cried James.

"So you admit it!?" laughed Remus.

"No! No I never said that I liked her! She's arrogant, a know-it-all and she hates me!"

"Oh my God! You have a crush on her!"

"I don't!"

"He so does!" joined Sirius.

"Shut up Sirius, I thought you were on my side!" James fought.

"Ah this is great!"

"You can stop shaking your head James, I already told you that you were a horrible liar."

"I'm not lying!"

"Your face is scarlet!" laughed Sirius.

…. . .

"Okay. . . I'm not saying I do. . . but there's a small-" mumbled James.

Remus roared with laughter and Sirius hit James with Remus' pillow knocking him off the end of the bed. Sirius bent over the bed and said,

"You couldn't have given it one week? Not a bad choice mate, though I'm still voting for you and the trolley lady."

James hit Sirius in the face with the pillow, and the rest of the day was spent in the hospital wing laughing and chatting.


End file.
